Come What May
by AFoolsDecadence
Summary: Carol's waiting for their return from Woodbury, but what happens when not all of them make it back? This time she'll come along to make sure to get someone out.
1. Nine Lives

Daryl's heart was hammering in his chest. It was beating so fast he briefly wondered whether it would explode out of his chest at any second.

He had never been this nervous in his entire life, not before the walkers came, not since. He glanced around, seeing the crazed, blood thirsty expression on people's faces, screaming for his demise. They couldn't wait for him to be ripped to shreds in front of their eyes.

His eyes landed on Merle. He couldn't remember ever seeing his brother in a situation that he couldn't get out of, but right now Merle looked scared. His eyes, too, darted around, latching onto the Governor. Despite his own anxiety Daryl felt a twinge of satisfaction.

_Serves him right for trustin' a fuckin' lunatic._

Merle's eyes landed on him for a second. Daryl tried to keep his face as passive as possible. He didn't want to show any emotions, give these people nothing to use against him. Speaking up now and saying the wrong thing or doing something stupid could bring his death about a lot quicker. He had to try and stall as much as he could.

_Why? What's gonna happen then? Ain't nobody comin' for you._

Daryl shook his head angrily to get rid of the thought. Rick and the others would notice he was gone and they would come back for him.

_You idiot. If they're not dead already, they got their asses outta here. The hurtin' Merle put on Glenn'll slow them down some, but they could get away. Save many and loose one. You're shit outta luck._

Daryl clenched his teeth. He would have done it that way, too. It was the only way to get at least some of them out of this crazy ass town.

He knew. He knew he was on his own and that no one would help him this time. But there was this tiny nagging voice way back in his head that threatened to let hope fill his thoughts. Maybe, just maybe Rick was reckless enough to risk it and come back for him.

_Cut that shit out! Ain't nobody comin' for ya! You're on your own. Again._

His eyes darted around the room, filled with the gleaming eyes of people who wanted to see blood for what had happened. His gaze landed on Andrea.

He'd almost said something to her when he'd first seen her, standing just a couple of feet away from him. He had never known whether to believe that the walkers had actually taken her down. She was a tough one, she could've gotten away, survived. They should've looked for her, gone back, to make sure that she was dead.

_You for real? Your sorry ass is about to be eaten to death and you decide to spend your last fuckin' minutes feelin' bad for someone else?_

It was sad, but it was true. He sure had changed. If Merle could see what was going on in his head, he'd laugh at his little brother for sure. But Daryl had never had to think about anyone else before, never wanted to care about others. And now? Now Merle wasn't his only family anymore.

His heart still slamming against his chest, sweat trickling down the back of his neck into the grimy collar of his shirt, his thoughts went back to the prison.

He knew he was going to die now. He wouldn't see any of them again, not in this life. He wouldn't get to tease the shit out of Glenn again. He wouldn't get so see Carl become more of a man with every passing day. He wouldn't get to hold the little Asskicker again. But she'd be safe. Lori might be dead, but she'd have a new mother. Carol.

Daryl swallowed the lump in his throat.

He wouldn't get to see Carol again. He had just gotten her back from the dead, never having been so relieved in his entire life as he had been when he'd reached out for her cheek and had felt the warmth of her human self.

_Well, life's a bitch, ain't it. Guess that was just too fuckin' good to be true._

So Carol was going to live and he wasn't. if it had to be one or the other he was glad it was going to be this way. If anyone deserved to live it was her. He wanted her to live, to be happy again. But it sure would've been nice if he'd been able to be around for all that. He wanted to see her smile again, have her tease him mercilessly for being so grumpy. He wanted to see her fuss around that baby girl, annoying the shit out of him with her crooning.

_Ain't ever gonna happen, you sentimental idiot. _

Daryl's breath hitched and he clenched his fists.

He wondered what would happen to her. He knew she could take care of herself now, he'd seen her with the shotgun, taking out walkers. The last eight months she had worked like hell not to feel like a burden anymore, trying to do as much as possible for the group. He was proud of how far she'd come. But would it be enough? What if something happened and she couldn't defend herself in time? If a walker grabbed her from behind and sunk its rotting teeth into the soft flesh of her neck?

Daryl shuddered in disgust at the thought. If he hadn't come here, if he hadn't had let himself be taken to easily, he could have prevented that from ever happening. He would have always protected Carol, no matter what.

_But you had to come for Glenn and Maggie, didn't ya? Thought they were worth it. And then you let yourself get separated from the group, hopin' to get Merle alone for a second. You stupid fuck. No way that woulda worked. And now? Now you're useless to her._

But maybe he was wrong. Maybe she would be fine, having herself and the rest of the group protecting her. Maybe the walkers would go away in a couple of years, or they would manage to find a safe place to stay, find other people. Maybe Carol would find someone to be happy with.

A small instinctual growl escaped Daryl's throat at the thought as he clenched his fists tighter. He did want Carol to be happy, but not in a way that included some asshole putting his hands on her.

_You jealous now? Don't be fuckin' ridiculous. Even if you survived this, ain't no way she would have ya, so quit dreamin'._

But he couldn't help himself. Whenever someone came near Carol he immediately grew tense, even if it was Rick. Especially if it was Rick.

_Yeah she sure was glad to see him again, wasn't she? Didn't hug you that way after you got her out of that cell._

It was stupid. Of course she was glad to see Rick, that didn't mean anything. But he was helpless against the surges of jealousy whenever another guy came near her. He had watched her like a hawk around the inmates, especially that Axel dude, who was way too shifty for Daryl's taste. If he'd ever come on to Carol he would've chopped his fucking hands off.

_Thanks to you he could be doin' it right now._

Daryl felt a rush of anger overtake him. It had been incredibly careless of them to go after Glenn and Maggie. Leaving the girls with Hershel and Carl. What kind of protection could they give them if something happened? Even though Daryl was certain that Carl would not hesitate to shoot someone who put one of the group in danger, he couldn't be everywhere at once. And he was still just a kid, easy to overpower.

_If somethin' happens back there it's your own fuckin' fault and you know it._

The sudden fear for Carol and the others briefly overshadowed his dread for his own fate.

_Well, now you're gonna die without ever havin' had the fuckin' balls to tell her._

Tell her what? There was nothing to tell. Not really. It wasn't like he would've made her a declaration of love or some shit like that, he had no idea how to love. But he would have liked to apologize. To apologize for believing she was dead, for not searching the entire prison, for not slicing open every single walker to make absolutely sure she was dead. He'd just assumed, just accepted it. His shame at having underestimated her, at having no faith in her and not making the effort to look for her had irked him to no end ever since he'd found her knife stuck in the walker's throat.

_Who the fuck d'you think you're kiddin'? That ain't the only thing you wanted to say._

It wasn't. Once he had carefully put Carol down on the lower cot in her cell, he'd had to physically clamp his teeth shut to stop the words from falling out. It hadn't been the time, she was dehydrated and exhausted and a second later Rick had come back with Michonne.

Daryl had wanted to apologize. But he'd also wanted to tell her, to promise her that he would never let her get lost again. He would never doubt her again, he would always save her and always look for her, always find her. He wanted to vow it, to make her understand that she could trust him to protect her, to be there for her. In any way she needed him to. In any way she wanted him to.

_Looks like you woulda broken that vow, so just be glad you were too much of a pussy to say it and let her get on without havin' that stuck in her head._

Daryl heard the walkers in the room moaning, their breath rattling. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought of Carol's gleaming blue eyes, her laugh and her fake proposition to screw around, which had made him almost fall off the bus. He thought of the look of sheer relief and gratitude on her face when he opened the door to the solitary cell and she saw it was him who had found her. And he thought of the last time they spoke, the last moment he would ever see her.

_I could use one of your nine lives right about now, Carol. Just so I could get back to you._


	2. Absolutely

Judith was squirming in Carol's arms, mewling quietly. Carol moved her arms, trying to rock the baby back to sleep. If Judith decided to throw a little tantrum Carol would have to hand her off. She was so preoccupied with her own thoughts and fraught with worry for the group that had gone to get Glenn and Maggie back. She'd been certain they would be back before nightfall. They hadn't returned.

Carol's heart skipped a beat. She didn't know why she was more nervous than she usually was when some of them went off on a run.

But it wasn't like a normal run this time. They had to silently break into a sealed off town, break Glenn and Maggie out and get out of there without being spotted. If they could even find those two. If they were even still alive.

"Stop it," she whispered angrily to herself, trying to push the thought aside. Everything would be fine. There was absolutely no use in thinking of the worst case scenario.

_They're fine,_ she thought. _Everybody's alive and they're all coming back. They're already on their way._

Judith had become silent again, her small breaths becoming more regular. Carol looked down at her and had to smile. It had been ages since she'd held a newborn and she couldn't stop herself from always reaching out to touch Judith's cheek. It was a miracle that she was here. She was and Lori wasn't.

Carol's heart grew heavy when she thought of her friend. It had been an incredibly courageous decision of Lori to sacrifice herself so that Judith could have a chance at survival. And having her son witness that.

Carol's eyes snapped up and landed on Carl who was sitting next to Beth on the concrete floor outside her cell, playing cards. It worried her how calm and collected he seemed after having witnessed his mother's death only a couple of days before. Any other child would have broken down, cried for weeks. But maybe it wasn't just that Carl was different. Maybe that was all in the past and children who grew up with the horror that he'd had to endure just dealt with it differently. Maybe there just wasn't any time and energy to waste on that kind of mourning.

And it hadn't been for nothing. Now Carl had a beautiful, perfect little sister whose name he had picked himself. If Carol was sure about anything concerning the boy it was the fact that he was absolutely besotted with his sister, just like everyone else.

Beth had told Carol that it had been Daryl who had given the baby her first bottle. Carol felt a small smile forming on her lips. Daryl continued to surprise her. She knew he had changed during the time with their group, but she had never pegged him as someone with a spot soft for babies. Then again he'd fought like hell to find her baby.

Carol took a deep breath. Whenever she thought of Sofia she felt a pain stabbing at her heart. But as time passed, the pain grew duller and duller and she had started to remember her daughter with fondness instead of dread. She only hoped it would be the same for Rick and Carl.

Suddenly there were sounds of a commotion and Carl and Beth's heads whipped around at the entrance to their cell block.

"What's happening?" Carol asked and shot up.

"I think they're back," Beth said as Carl sprang to his feet.

"Take her," Carol said and carefully placed the sleeping baby in Beth outstretched arms.

Carol walked swiftly to the gate of their block and wrenched it open.

"I'll go check," she said.

"I'm coming with you," Carl said. "You have your knife?"

"Yeah," Carol said. "You have your gun?"

Carl nodded and if Carol hadn't been so nervous she would have laughed at hearing herself ask a 14 year old whether he had his gun with him.

They walked quickly through the concrete hallways and Carol stumbled down the steps into the courtyard, the bright sunlight momentarily blinding her.

"It's them," Carl said, the relief evident in his voice, as he opened the gate and walked out. Carol could make out four figures walking towards them.

_Four. Only four. It should be six._

Her heart lurched as she followed Carl into the open, squinting to make out who was coming towards her.

Elation rushed through her as she recognized Glenn limping across the yard, supported by Maggie. Carol rushed towards them, trying to keep a straight face as she took in Glenn's mangled face.

"Thank God you're back!" she said, putting a hand on Maggie's shoulder. The girl looked absolutely exhausted as she smiled back at her.

Carol's gaze went past Maggie's head and landed on the other two people coming towards her. Rick. And the new woman.

Carol's smile froze on her face and every muscle in her body seemed to clench up as Rick came to stand in front of them.

"Carl," he said, looking at his son. "Get Glenn and Maggie inside and make sure Hershel checks them out right away."

Carl nodded and helped Maggie support Glenn as they made their way up the stairs into the building. Rick's eyes followed them until they were out of sight and then he looked back at Carol. She couldn't quite put her finger on what she saw in his eyes, a mixture of relief and shame.

"Carol…" he began.

"What happened?" she said, her voice hard, the fingers of her hand gripping the hilt of her knife so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"It's a huge town," Rick said. "Lot's of people. It was total chaos, we got separated and we had to get Glenn and Maggie out of there."

"What are you saying?" Carol asked, as Michonne came to stand next to Rick.

"He's dead," Michonne said tonelessly.

Carol felt as though she had been hit with a ton of bricks, knocking all the air out of her lungs. Her knees buckled and she grabbed onto Rick's arm to keep herself upright, digging her fingers into his skin. She leaned over, feeling like she was going to be sick any second, gasping for breath.

"What no!" Rick said loudly, taking ahold of Carol's arm and pulled her up. "Daryl's not dead." He said, glaring at Michonne.

"What?" Carol asked.

"Oscar's dead," Rick said, his eyes snapping back to her. "Daryl got taken. He's _not_ dead."

"How do you know that?" Carol asked, wiping her eyes with shaking fingers.

"Because Merle's with the Governor. No way he would let anything happen to him." Rick said as Carol stared at him in disbelief.

"Merle? His brother?" Carol asked incredulously. Rick nodded. "Merle's in that town?"

"Yeah. Had to practically restrain Daryl from running up to him in the middle of a gun fight," Rick said.

Carol tried to process the situation as best as she could. Then she stood up straight and shook her head, collecting herself.

"Alright," she said, her voice business-like. "When do we go get him?"

Rick's eyes wouldn't meet her and he took a deep breath.

"It's not that easy," he finally said. "They'll be on high alert now that we were there. Maggie told them we're at the prison, we gotta get out before they come looking for us."

"So we're going to leave him there?" Carol asked disbelievingly.

"No," Rick said loudly, glaring at her. "But this isn't the time to make any rash decisions, Carol. We can't just storm in there and get him out. Even if we didn't have to get out of the prison, who's gonna go? Oscar's dead, Glenn's in no shape to do anything and Maggie's so exhausted she's practically falling asleep while walking!"

"I don't care," Carol said stubbornly. "We're gonna go get him."

"And we will," Rick said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "But not right now."

"If he's still alive," Michonne said, looking at Carol. "He won't be for long. That Governor's a real creep. Likes to see people suffer."

Carol could feel the hair on the back on her neck stand up.

"Then we're going right now," she said, her eyes boring into Rick's.

He looked back at her with anger and desperation in his eyes.

"We can't do it," he said. "Maybe we'll get in, but we sure won't get out alive."

Carol didn't answer and Rick let out an angry bark of laughter.

"You wanna do that?" he asked aggressively. "You wanna risk everyone in this group to get him? Beth? Carl?" Carol didn't answer. Rick pinched the bridge of his nose and continued calmly.

"Look, I know you care about him-"

"Don't you patronize me!" Carol snapped, glaring at Rick. "Don't you dare!"

"I'm not," Rick said, alarmed by her sudden outburst. "I get it and I'm sorry, but-"

"I don't want any fucking pity!" Carol yelled. "I understand everything you're saying, I get why you're saying it. It doesn't change anything. I want to go get him."

"On your own?" Rick asked, raising an eyebrow. Carol knew the condescension in his voice was meant to make her see reason, but she ignored it.

"If I have to," she said. Rick groaned and turned away in frustration.

"We're wasting time here," Carol said. "I'm gonna go."

"Just wait a second," Rick said. "We gotta come up with some kinda plan."

"You're right, if they know where we are, we have to get out," Carol said. "Get Beth and Carl to load everything into the cars, while Hershel takes care of Glenn and Maggie. They have to be ready to go as soon as possible. The three of us go back and get Daryl."

"What makes you think I'd come with you?" Rick asked quietly. "It's dangerous. I'm not planning to go head first into a situation I know I probably won't get out of alive."

"Fine," Carol said, icily. "Then you stay. If you can live with being a coward."

Rick whipped round and came at her, his eyes gleaming with anger, but Carol wouldn't move an inch as he glared at her, their noses only inches apart.

"You got some nerve," Rick hissed, his breath hot on her face. "I ain't no coward. I just went in there to get Glenn and Maggie, didn't I?"

"So they're worth risking your life for, but Daryl isn't?" Carol asked coolly.

Rick took a step back, still glaring at her.

"You owe him," Carol said. "How often has he saved your skin? And when you went crazy he was the one who stepped up to take care of Judith." She could see the anguish on Rick's face. "You owe him," she repeated.

The silence between them seemed to last an eternity.

"Alright," Rick finally said, looking at her. "We'll go."

Carol's heart skipped a beat, but she just nodded curtly.

"You coming?" she asked, turning to look at Michonne.

"Yes," the woman said. "I left something back in Woodbury. I wanna get it back."

"Okay," Rick said, letting out a sigh, his calculating eyes on Carol.

"You ready for this?" he asked her.

"Yes," Carol said, her voice strong.

"It could get real ugly," Rick said. "You might have to kill a human."

Carol swallowed.

"Can you do that? Kill a person?" Rick wanted to know.

It was curious. Carol had always abhorred violence of any kind. She didn't even get any kind of satisfaction out of killing walkers. As a victim of physical abuse it made her sick to her stomach to think about people doing such horrible things to each other.

But this time it was different. She wasn't going to kill someone for the thrill of it. This was about getting someone back. Not someone, not anyone, but Daryl. Daryl, who had looked so tirelessly for Sofia, almost more than she had. Daryl, who had hurled so many insults at her head and she had let him, just to make sure he wouldn't shut himself off again. Daryl, who was always taking care of the group, never claiming credit or wanting something in return. Daryl, who had turned into her family over the last couple of months. Daryl, who loved Judith even though he probably wouldn't admit it.

There was no way she was going to let him go, now that he was the one who needed to be rescued. It didn't matter what she had to do, she would get him back.

"Carol," Rick said and she snapped out of her thoughts. "Are you ready to kill someone if you have to?"

"Absolutely."


	3. The Way There

**Attempting to turn this into a multiple chapter story... Because you wanted it. And also I can't wait until February! :) Please please review!**

They didn't talk much during their way to Woodbury. Carol was sure Rick was seething on the inside, angry at himself for having let her talk him into risking his neck again. His jaw muscle kept twitching and he only gave short answers whenever she asked something.

They had told the others about their plan and after bitching about not being able to come along, even Glenn had realized that this was the only way. It had taken some substantial persuasion on Rick's side to stop Carl from insisting on joining them, but the thought of leaving Judith without proper protection had finally made him give in.

They had already packed up half their stuff by the time the three had left for the town. Carol was aware how dangerous it was for them to be attempting this during the day, but they didn't have time to wait until nightfall. They couldn't stay at the prison until then and she was sure Daryl didn't have any time to spare either.

_You mean if he's still alive._

Carol swallowed. She normally tried to shoo those thoughts away as quick as possible, but it was different now. They'd never been in a situation this precarious and everything that had come close had always been overcome, because Daryl had been there.

A twig snapped loudly under Carol's heel and she jumped slightly, taken aback by the sound.

"Focus," Rick hissed, looking around nervously as they continued to walk along the trampled path.

Carol opened her mouth to make an automatic apology, but bit her lip. She had to stop being sorry for everything and she might as well start now. If there had ever been a time to show self-confidence it was now.

Her gaze fell onto Michonne who was walking a few feet in front of her, crouching like an animal ready to pounce, her sword gripped tightly in her hands. While Carol thought the woman was oddly quiet and unreadable, she couldn't help feel a sting of envy. Michonne was the epitome of a strong woman who could kick anyone's ass, who definitely wasn't a burden to anyone. Carol knew she wasn't a burden either, not anymore. She had made certain of that. But she was no Michonne and it bothered her.

As if she could sense Carol's eyes on the back of her head, Michonne looked round at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Carol said, trying not to sound either embarrassed or defensive.

Michonne grunted but halted, studying Carol from head to toe.

"What weapons d'you have on you?" she asked

Carol showed her the gun and her knife, but Michonne shook her head.

"Not good enough," she muttered. "they'll work fine with walkers, but not in the town."

"A little late now," Carol said darkly and Michonne's lips twitched as though she was about to smile. She turned to Rick and pointed at the gun slung across his back.

"Give it to her," she said. Rick raised an eyebrow.

"I'm serious," Michonne said, turning to look at Carol again. "You ever fired one of those?"

"Yeah," Carol said and nodded.

"There you go," Michonne said to Rick. "Woman needs a shotgun."

Rick sighed as though he didn't want to argue about it and slid the weapon off his shoulder. He silently handed it to Carol, who placed it around her torso.

"Let's go," Rick said and they picked up a quicker pace.

The metal handle of the gun was cold against Carol's back. She thought back to the first time she had used it, almost falling flat on her ass, not knowing how strong the kick-back would be. She was surprised how painful it could be to fire a weapon and her collarbone had been pretty blue that evening.

She couldn't help the small grin that spread across her lips as she thought about that. She didn't know what had come over her at that moment. She'd been in such a good mood, because she had actually learned something that day, had contributed. And had managed to not kiss the ground in a most undignified manner. She hadn't been that carefree in weeks. And seeing everyone sitting around the fire that night, eating, talking, some of them smiling, it warmed her heart. Of course, having Daryl stand there next to her on the bus hadn't exactly been bad either. She loved how neither of them ever felt the need to strike up useless conversation. They could sit for hours without speaking.

Her shoulder was irritating her and she had unconsciously put her hand on it. But Daryl, always noticing if anything was wrong had immediately noticed. She had just automatically answered him, but when he started massaging her shoulder without so much as an invite she had to stop herself from staring at him in utter disbelief. It wasn't that she minded him touching her, but Daryl never touched anybody unless he absolutely had to and now he was casually kneading her skin with his calloused hands.

Carol had to admit, it had felt incredible. She wasn't someone who needed constant physical contact, but it was nice to feel someone's warm skin against her own nevertheless.

And she hadn't been able to not look at him. If she had just kept staring straight ahead, maybe he wouldn't have gotten so embarrassed. But the minute his eyes had met hers he'd seemed to realize what he was doing and immediately took a step back. Carol had known that it was a precarious situation. If she'd been stupid enough to pick that moment to say something profound or emotional, he'd have run for the hills. So she'd tried to lighten the mood by making a joke. And it had worked. He'd blushed like a little girl, which seemed to embarrass him even more, but Carol had acted as though she hadn't noticed it in the dim light of the fire as they made their way off the bus.

She gripped the sling of the gun to keep it from knocking against her hip, trying to keep her steps as quiet as she could on the leaf covered ground.

Maybe it was just her imagination running away with her, but there had been a moment up on that bus, a second. A second in which Daryl looked at her with an expression that she had never seen before and she couldn't quite place. But it had seemed like there was a possibility. Like it could mean something. Maybe she was just making it up. And anyway, did she want it to mean something? What could it even mean? This was Daryl. If anyone in the group was more fucked up than she was, it was him. The man had some serious trust issues and those were just the tip of the iceberg. She thought carefully about everything she said or did around him, afraid that he would retreat into his shell, cutting himself off from the group. It had gotten better in recent months, but Carol knew that it wouldn't take much for him to return right back to that place in his head.

Did she really want to strike something up with someone like that? Weren't things complicated enough already?

Carol shook her head and tried to focus on the path in front and her grip on her gun. This wasn't the time to think about any of that. First, they had to get into that town and get Daryl out. All that other stuff would have to wait, if there even was any.

"We'll be there soon," Michonne whispered and Carol's heart sped up.

She'd made herself a promise earlier. She would not leave that town without Daryl. No matter what happened. It wasn't just Rick who owed him. Nobody owed Daryl more than she did. And she would make damn sure to honor everything he'd done for her by saving him. Come what may.


	4. Roses and Games

**This chapter is a bit longer than the others and there's not much Carol/Daryl in it, sadly. I wanted to write more, but my eyes are falling shut as I write this. Please review you guys, I love hearing what you have to say!**

Carol couldn't help the fear that was uncurling in the pit of her stomach and spreading into all of her limbs. She had never done anything like this. It could go wrong so easily. One small mishap and they could all be dead.

"Now listen carefully," Rick hissed into her ear as they were crouching behind the wooden building. "This is the only way into the town we could find. But they know that now, so we have no idea who's gonna be in there waiting for us."

Carol nodded and took slow breaths to calm her nerves.

"Carol," Rick said, grabbing her upper arm, his eyes intense. "If there are people in there, they'll have guns and they're gonna want to kill us. You cannot hesitate, not for a second. You shoot them. Understood?"

"Yeah," Carol answered, her voice hoarse.

She had the shotgun at the ready and even though her nerves were fraught, her hands were completely steady as she followed Rick to the back door of the house.

"Michonne and I'll go in first," Rick whispered and Carol nodded.

He slowly edged towards the window that was only partially boarded up. Holding onto the window frame he pulled himself into the building. Carol's heart hammered in her chest as Rick moved out of sight. Michonne followed him without a word.

Carol made to swing the gun over her shoulder but stopped herself. She had to be ready to fire at any second, she wouldn't have time to adjust. Gripping the splintered wood of the frame, she pushed off the ground and ducked into the building.

Gripping her weapon tightly, every muscle in her body tense, she followed Rick and Michonne as they carefully advanced into the house. All of a sudden Rick raised an arm and they came to an abrupt halt. He pointed in front of him and craning her neck, Carol could make out the back of an armchair and a hand resting on the arm rest.

Michonne slowly stepped past Rick and edged forward, her eyes trained on the chair as she came to step in front of it. Carol could see the woman's eyes flicker over to them for a second before she raised her sword and brought it down in one swift motion. The sound and the spray of deep red that squirted onto the floor made Carol's stomach queasy and she had to bit down hard on the inside of her lip to not shout out in protest.

"Come on," Rick said, nudging her as they followed Michonne towards the front door.

Carol knew that she would do herself a favor if she kept her gaze trained on the door in front of them, but as she walked past the armchair she turned to look anyway.

The man's eyes were closed and he could have been sleeping, if there hadn't been a huge, ugly gash across his throat, spilling blood everywhere.

_It's for Daryl. Don't forget that._

Carol straightened her shoulders and turned towards her companions. It was true, this wasn't for nothing. This had to be done if they wanted to have even a slight chance of getting Daryl out of here. There was no time to feel bad about it not now.

Rick drew back a corner of the curtain and looked out.

"Fuck," he hissed.

"What is it?" Carol asked.

"There are people everywhere," Rick said, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

"It's the middle of the day, what do you expect?" Michonne muttered.

Rick was silent, then let out a sigh. "There's no way we can go out there. We'll have to wait 'til curfew."

"What?" Carol asked disbelievingly. "You want us to sit around her for hours, waiting, while they're doing God knows what to Daryl?"

"And someone will come to take over for him," Michonne said, pointing behind her to the man in the armchair, whose blood was forming a puddle at his feet. "I bet they're taking shifts in guarding the entrance, in case we came back. We're damn lucky this guy fell asleep."

"Well what do you suggest we do?" Rick snapped, running his hand through his hair. Michonne didn't answer.

"Let me go in," Carol said suddenly. Rick turned to stare at her.

"What?"

"I'll go in," Carol said. "No weapons. I'll act like I belong, try to find something out."

"Are you out of your mind?" Rick breathed. "Going in there unarmed? This ain't a city, it's about 50 people, they all know each other. They'll know you're not one of them."

"I'll make something up," Carol insisted. "I'll tell them I just got here, some of them brought me after finding me during a run. They must get new people here from time to time. They took Michonne in."

Rick continued to stare at her as though she had gone mad and she had to admit, it wasn't the best plan. Carol looked over to Michonne who was looking at her with an unreadable expression.

"She could do it," the woman said.

"You two are crazy!" Rick hissed, angrily looking at them.

"It's our only shot!" Carol whispered heatedly. "I'll be fine, Rick."

"Jesus Christ," Rick said after a while, drawing his hand over his face, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"Come on," Carol said as she straightened up. She handed Michonne the shotgun and pulled her hand gun from her waistband, thrusting it at Rick, who took it automatically.

"Keep your knife," Michonne said before carol had a chance to remove it from her pocket.

"Okay," Carol nodded.

"Don't stutter, don't look nervous," Michonne said.

"Thanks for the advice," Carol said sarcastically.

"Have a look around, see whether you can make out anything that could help us," Rick said quietly. "Don't talk to anyone, it's too risky. If you find something or if you don't, you come back as soon as possible. Make sure no one sees you go in here."

"I got it," Carol said, her heart speeding up as she put her hand on the door knob.

"Carol," Rick grabbed her wrist and she looked at him. "You sure he's worth this?"

"Yes," Carol said without hesitating. Rick nodded curtly and let go off her arm and carefully looked out of the window again.

"Alright, go!" he hissed.

Before her nerves got the better of her, Carol wrenched open the door, slipped through and quickly drew the door closed behind her, taking to quick steps away from the building.

Without thinking about it, she began to casually walk across the street, looking around, her hands in her pockets. Several people were visible, most of them talking and laughing with each other.

The inside of the town caught Carol off guard. Everything was in pristine condition, the streets clean, neat flower beds arranged. People were wearing clean clothes, had no dirt on their faces. And they seemed genuinely happy from what she could see. Carol couldn't help being in awe of this place. It was like a little slice of paradise. Even the air smelled sweet. Carol walked past a flowerbed and halted. It had been so long since she had seen anything so beautiful, so taken care of. Without a second thought she knelt down and lowered her head to bring her nose to one of the flowers. She closed her eyes as the sun warmed her shoulders and the scent of the rose filled her senses, it was almost like a rush.

"Are you the one Annie sent?" someone said.

Carol jumped to her feet, her eyes wide open. A woman was standing in front of her, wearing a flowing skirt and a hat with a large rim.

"W-what?" Carol stammered, her heart slamming against her chest.

"Are you the one Annie sent to help me with the flowers?" the woman said, looking at Carol as though she wasn't all there.

"Yes," Carol said immediately. "I'm sorry. I was just admiring your flowers, they're so incredibly beautiful."

The look of suspiscion on the woman's face disappeared and she beamed at Carol.

"Thank you! I'm glad you think so. I do put a lot of work into them."

"I can see that," Carol said, thanking her lucky stars for the human response to flattery. "I always used to have the worst luck with roses myself."

"Well, you have to know what you're doing," the woman said conversationally. "It takes quite a bit of effort and experience."

"Evidently," Carol said.

"Well, then let's get to it," the woman said and picked up a basket that had been resting on the ground near her feet. "What we'll do now is just to cut off any dying or dead leaves and make sure there aren't any nasty greenflies on my babies."

She held out the basket to Carol and trying to look as though she knew exactly what she was supposed to do, Carol picked out a pair of thick working gloves and a pair of small garden pliers.

"I'm sorry. I'm terribly forgetful," she said as she put on the gloves. " what's your name again?"

"Susan," the woman answered. "I thought Annie would have told you that."

"Oh, she did," Carol said quickly. "But names are my worst enemy. I'm much better with faces."

"Who isn't these days?" Susan said as she crouched down and began to inspect the roses. "It sounds cruel, but sometimes I wonder why we even bother to learn anyone else's name if they'll be gone any second."

"True," Carol said, following Susan's example. She gently lifted the leaves of the flowers to the sunlight to inspect them and began cutting of the ones that had died.

She stole a quick glance at Susan. Rick had told her not to speak to anyone. Well, that was out the window. If she treaded carefully, maybe she could make Susan tell her something about last night and about what had happened.

She let out an almost overly artificial yawn and Susan looked over at her.

"Tired?" she asked as her fingers continued to work.

"Yeah," Carol said, pretending to rub her eyes with her arm. "After what happened last night, I couldn't sleep."

"That's no surprise," Susan said and nodded emphatically. "That was a nightmare."

"And so much chaos!" Carol said, trying to sound worried. "I could hardly see what was going on."

"You mean you weren't at the games?" Susan asked incredulously.

"No," Carol said, her pulse quickening, as Susan's gaze grew suspicious. "I was so scared, I just crawled under the bed and waited until the sun came up. It was a lot like back when the walkers first came to our house, you know. I just… I was too scared to move." She said, hanging her head.

"I understand," Susan said, as she put a comforting hand on Carol's. "It happens to the best of us."

"So… what happened at the games?" Carol asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"They caught one of those monsters who attacked us," Susan said, her voice growing vicious. "Turns out, it's Merle's brother!"

She looked expectantly at Carol with gleaming eyes.

"Really?" Carol asked, trying to fuel the woman's gossiping while her insides felt like they'd turned to stone.

_Daryl. She's talking about Daryl._

"Oh yeah," Susan said, obviously basking in the glory of having been able to deliver such a juicy piece of news. "And Merle was in on it!"

"You've got to be kidding," Carol said, not having to act this time. There was no way that was true.

"Yeah, the Governor himself said so," Susan said, as though that settled the matter.

"So what happened to them?" Carol asked as she continued to busy her hands with the roses to keep them from shaking with anxiety.

"They were taken to the arena, just like they deserve," Susan said, pointing to a large building at the end of the street.

Carol knew she had to tread carefully. She couldn't let Susan know that she had no idea what the woman was talking about.

"And did they die?" she asked, trying to make her voice sound steady.

"Who knows?" Susan said, shrugging.

Carol couldn't hide the confusion from her face as Susan looked at her.

"We were all ready for it to start," Susan said. "Almost everyone was there to watch, we had biters there to carry out the sentence."

Carol froze and felt the fear rise in her throat.

"But the Governor didn't go through with it," Susan continued, sounding disappointed. "Wanted to make sure he knew everything there was to know first."

Carol let out a breath, trying not to let the sheer relief that washed through her betray her act.

"I'm sure they're dead and gone now," Susan continued. "How much could that redneck have known?"

"Why, you heard anything?" Carol asked, focusing on keeping her nerves in check.

"Nah," Susan said, shaking her head. "But those two don't deserve to live. I hope the Governor's done away with that scum. I'm sure he has."

"Let's hope so," Carol agreed, gripping the stem of the rose she was working on so tightly she almost ripped the flower out of the ground.

* * *

Carol wasn't sure how long she crouched over the flowers, but the sun had begun to sting less and less on the back of her neck. It had felt like eternity, attempting to appear normal and engrossed in her task, while feverishly trying to figure out the best way to get back to the other two and look for Daryl.

Finally, Susan groaned and got to her feet.

"Alright," she said, her face red. "I think we're done for today."

"Okay," Carol said, pulling off the gloves.

"Nice work," Susan said, looking at her appreciatively. "You can come work with me again."

"I'm glad to help," Carol said, trying to appear happy at the compliment.

Susan put all the equipment into her basket and thread her arm through the handle.

"Well," she said, looking at Carol. "Tell Annie I said hi and that I hope she gets better soon."

"I will," Carol said.

Susan smiled at her and walked away. Carol pretended to brush dirt from her pants until she had seen Susan disappear at the end of the street.

She tried to scan her surroundings out of the corner of her eyes and was able to make out a group of four people working on the front door of a house at the other side of the street.

She turned and slowly made her way back to the wooden building, constantly checking to make sure nobody was watching her. When she'd reached the door, she rapped on it with her knuckles once, then bent down as if she were tying her shoe laces, the side of her leg pressed against the blue door.

She heard the lock turn and the door gave way a tiny bit. As quick as she could she slipped through the opening and shut it behind her, leaning against the cool wood.

"What the fuck, Carol?" Rick whispered as her eyes adjusted to her dim surroundings. "I could see you! You were supposed to look for clues not take a gardening lesson!"

"Are you crazy?" Carol hissed angrily, glaring at Rick. "I wasn't doing that for my own amusement! She assumed I was sent to help her! What was I supposed to do, run away?"

"Fuck!" Rick muttered, throwing his hands up.

"It wasn't a waste," Carol said. "She said that Daryl and Merle were taken to the arena."

"Arena?" Rick asked.

"It's the big building at the end of the street I think," Carol said. "Susan said they were taken there and the whole town came to watch…"

"To watch what?"

"To watch them being torn apart by walkers," Carol said, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. Rick looked like he was about to be sick.

"But she didn't know what happened to them," Carol continued quickly. "She said that the Governor decided to get as much information out of them as he could."

"What information?"

"I have no idea," Carol said.

"Probably about the prison," Rick muttered. "How many we are, where the entrance is, weak spots."

Carol didn't answer. She didn't want to imagine what that sick son of a bitch would do to get Daryl to spill those secrets.

"They still alive?" Michonne asked.

"I don't know," Carol said, her heart growing heavy.

"So where are we supposed to go from here?" Michonne asked.

"Let's have a look inside the arena," Carol said. "Maybe they're still being held there."

"How are we supposed to get there?" Rick asked. "It's not dark yet, we'll be spotted. And there are people outside."

Michonne walked to the window and pulled the curtain back an inch.

"I can only see four," she said.

"That's what I counted," carol confirmed.

"We could take them," Michonne said. Carol stared at her in disbelief.

"What?"

"It's just four," Michonne said. "We could take them out."

"Are you out of your mind?" Carol hissed. "Those are innocent people! We can't just kill them!"

"It's either Daryl or them," Michonne said coldly. "Who are you gonna pick?"

Carol didn't answer. She didn't know what to say.

"No," Rick said, shaking his head. "We're not killing people who aren't even carrying any weapons. We're not like them."

"Fine," Michonne said tonelessly and continued to look out of the window. "But they'll know we're here soon enough. They're gonna notice that two of them are missing."

"Two of them?" Carol asked in confusion.

"Yeah," Rick said heavily. "Another one came in to guard the entrance. Had to take him out."

He pointed behind him and Carol could make out a pair of legs behind the arm chair.

"And you won't believe what he had with him," Michonne said.

"What?" Carol asked. Michonne stepped past her and bent to pick something off the ground. It was too dark for Carol to make out what Michonne was holding until she was standing in front of her.

Then she recognized it. It was a crossbow. Carol's heart lurched.

"Give it to me," she said and reached out, practically ripping it from the other woman's arms. Michonne raised an eyebrow at the action, but Carol ignored it, her fingers gripping the weapon tightly.

Daryl didn't like other people messing with his stuff, but he was particularly insistent about the crossbow. He'd only ever let Carol try to shoot it once and when he was satisfied that she'd be able to more or less use it in an absolute emergency he'd taken it from her again.

Carol didn't know why, but she felt like it was important that she made sure nothing happened to it. She wanted to be certain to get it back to Daryl in one piece.

If he could trust anyone to return it to him it was her. She was certain of that.


	5. Blood

**Please disregard any mistakes I may have made about the geographical layout of Woodbury or its buildings. I did rewatch the episodes to make sure I didn't get it totally wrong, but it's probably far from accurate anyway. Read, (hopefully) enjoy and please review!**

Time seemed to have slowed down, a minute passing in what seemed like an hour. Carol's fingers were drumming against the crossbow she was holding in her arms. She was standing in front of the window, glancing out of the curtains every few seconds, willing the town people to finally get off the streets.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered, turning to face the others. "We're wasting time, let's go."

"Carol," Rick said, letting out an exasperated sigh. "We've been over this. There is no way we're gonna be able to make it to that building undetected. We have to wait for the curfew."

"We can do it!" Carol hissed. "There aren't that many people out there."

"I said no," Rick said through gritted teeth, while Carol glared at him, seething. The waiting and thinking was driving her insane and she could feel every muscle in her body screaming at her to just move.

"We wouldn't be sitting around here waiting if Carl was missing," she said. It was a low blow and she knew it. Rick stiffened and the glance he threw her would have made the Carol from eight months ago flinch and recoil. But she had something to lose now and she was desperate.

"I'll go alone," she added. "I understand that you think it's too dangerous, but I am not waiting."

"Carol, I swear to God," Rick said, the anger in his voice barely controlled. "If you don't get it together, I will march you back to the rest of the group, regardless of what that means for Daryl."

Carol felt the fury take ahold of her and she opened her mouth to hurl insults at Rick.

"Stop," Michonne said, her head leaning against the wall, her eyes closed. "They'll hear you."

Carol swallowed her remarks and stared at Rick with as much contempt as she could muster. He refused to meet her gaze, but she was certain he could feel her eyes on him as he began to fidget.

"Fine!" he suddenly blurted, the discontent audible in his voice. "We can't go in there yet, we won't even make it across the street without being noticed. We won't wait until curfew, but we will wait until nightfall. That's not negotiable, you hear?"

Carol nodded, satisfied that she had achieved at least something.

"Christ," Rick muttered, shaking his head slightly. "You nag Daryl this much?"

"All the time," Carol said, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Rick snorted and eyed her curiously for a moment, before he grew serious again.

"He's lucky to have you worrying this much about him," he said, sounding genuine.

"I worry about everyone this much," Carol said, trying to sound dismissive.

"No you don't," Rick said quietly. Carol tried to act as though she hadn't heard him. She knew he was right, but she felt like she was being interrogated and she had no desire to discuss how she felt about Daryl.

"I was just thinking," Rick said, looking amused. "D'you remember what Daryl used to be like? Back when Merle was around?"

"You mean he used to be a lot meaner?" Carol asked and sat down on the floor in front of Rick, crossing her legs and carefully placing the crossbow in her lap.

"I mean he used to be an asshole," Rick said dryly and Carol couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah," she agreed. "He wasn't all that sociable back then."

"Not really, no," Rick said, grinning. Then he grew serious again. "I always wondered why he stayed with us. After we cuffed Merle to that roof, I mean. He could've left, he could've gone looking for his brother. He could have shot T-Dog and me."

Carol didn't answer straight away. It was a question she had asked herself a lot over the course of their time together as a group.

"I think it's because Daryl's nothing like his brother," she finally answered. "Sure, he acts all disgruntled and harsh, but I think that's just something he took over from Merle. Daryl's a good man. And with Merle being gone… he had a chance to finally prove it."

"I guess so," Rick said.

"Is it horrible that I'm glad Merle got left behind?" Carol asked, her stomach churning.

"No," Rick said decisively. "Merle was a redneck bastard and you're right, Daryl needed to be his own man. No way everything would have happened the way it did if Merle had stayed with our group."

"Daryl wouldn't have looked for Sophia the way he did," Carol said quietly, looking at her hands.

"It's a good thing then that Merle wasn't with us and Daryl searched like hell for her," Rick said and Carol nodded, managing a weak smile.

"I just…" she halted, trying to stop her voice from breaking. "I just wouldn't be able to ever forgive myself if I couldn't return the favor."

"Don't you worry about any of that," Rick said insistently. "We know he's here and we're gonna go get him. You'll have nothing to forgive yourself for."

Carol nodded again, willing herself not to cry. This was neither the time nor the place. All that could come later, but now she needed to be strong.

"I'm sorry I was being such a bitch," she said once she had calmed down. Rick snorted and looked at her in amusement.

"I think you're being kind of hard on yourself there," he said. "And this is a difficult situation. You're allowed to be a little unreasonable."

Carol smiled at him. She was glad to be with Rick in this situation, despite everything. Someone had to remain level-headed. And where Daryl was concerned she sure wasn't going to be.

* * *

"Carol, wake up."

Carol felt a hand on her shoulder and jerked awake, looking around in panic.

"Come on, it's dark," Rick said quietly, pointing to the door.

Carol got to her feet and tried to shake the fatigue from her body. She couldn't believe she'd actually nodded off, but the past 24 hours had been so stressful, she must have finally succumbed to sleep.

Michonne was standing at the window, watching the street like a hawk.

"We good?" Rick asked and Michonne nodded.

"You ready?" he whispered, looking at Carol.

Carol slung the shotgun over her shoulder and picked up the crossbow, holding it tightly in both hands.

"Let's go," she said, nodding at Rick.

Her heart was hammering in her chest and her palms were clammy as she gripped the crossbow harder. It wasn't so much the fear for her own life that was straining her nerves. It was a cold dread that was spreading over her, taking ahold of her imagination. It was the horror of what she thought she might find that was making it hard to breathe.

"Focus," Rick hissed, seeing the expression on Carol's face, as he turned the door knob slowly.

The warm, sweet smelling evening air hit them as they left the building, each of them with their weapons at the ready.

"Come on," Rick whispered, leading them across the deserted street. They ran to the opposite side of the street as quickly and quietly as they could and halted in the shadow of a house, their backs pressed against the wall.

"Alright," Rick said, his eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. He crept down the street, never leaving more than a few inches between himself and the walls of the adjoining houses. Carol followed suit, Daryl's crossbow raised high, her trigger finger poised. She could feel Michonne moving behind her and felt a surge of reassurance. She knew that they would have a much better chance of making it out alive with her by their side.

They were almost at the large factory building when Carol suddenly heard voices.

"Someone's coming!" she hissed. "Run!"

Without so much as a glance over their shoulders the three of them sprinted to the building. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, Carol almost ran into Rick as he came to a halt in front of the entrance doors.

"It's open," he whispered in disbelief, wrenching the door open. Carol and Michonne quickly squeezed through the small opening, followed by Rick.

Trying to catch her breath, Carol craned her neck, looking around. She couldn't believe their luck. The door had just been left open? Did someone just forget to lock it? Or was there simply nothing there anymore that needed to be kept inside?

As she glanced at Rick she could tell he had the same thought.

"Come on," he muttered and they walked ahead, their weapons raised.

It was rather dark, but the light from the streetlamps and lit houses that streamed through the windows made it possible to make out shapes. Carol could feel the uneven ground beneath her feet as they made their way further inside. She crouched down and pressed her fingers to the floor. It was sand.

"Are those bleachers?" Michonne asked, pointing to the sides of the hall.

"Jesus," Rick muttered in disgust. "They really do make a game out of it, don't they?"

Carol got up and walked further into the middle of the arena, trying to focus her eyes on her surroundings. She took another step, her feet scraping over the sand. She looked down. It felt different.

"What is that?" she asked, looking at the area surrounding her feet. She could only make out that it seemed darker than the rest of the floor.

"Wet," Michonne said, squinting down. "Probably water."

Carol crouched down and slowly reached out with her fingers tips, dragging them over the wet ground. She knew before she raised her hand to her face. Somehow she had known the second her feet had scraped against the dark ground.

"That's not water," she said, her voice shaking. "That's blood."

She concentrated as hard as she could on the dark shape to try and assess how big it was. It continued to spread until the edge of the first row of bleachers. There was no way a human could loose that amount of blood and live.

"Oh God," Carol muttered. She could feel the bile rise in her throat as she gasped.

"We don't know whose it is," Rick said quickly. "We don't even know if it's human. Could be walkers."

"What if it's not?" Carol asked through gritted teeth, willing her stomach to calm down.

Rick didn't answer and Carol let out a groan.

"It can't be Daryl's," Rick said. "You said that woman told you the Governor wanted information from him, right? There's no way Daryl would've given it up so easily."

"Then where is he?" Carol breathed. "There are dozens of houses! Are we just gonna break into all of them to see if he's there?"

"You giving up?" Michonne asked coolly.

Carol knew she was trying to antagonize her and she felt an instinctual sting of fury, but the futility of their rescue attempt was becoming more and more apparent to her.

"Maybe he don't have to search all the houses," Rick mused.

"What?" Carol asked.

"I didn't think they'd have him there, because it's where we got Glenn and Maggie out of…" Rick muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Carol snapped.

"There's this building near the wall," Rick said. "It's where they kept Glenn and Maggie. I thought they would take Daryl somewhere else in case we came back for him. But maybe that's where they're keeping him."

"You think we can get back there?" Michonne asked.

"We'll have to be quick," Rick said. "But I think we can do it."

"Let's do it," Carol said and Michonne nodded curtly.

As they made their way back to the front doors, Carol wiped her bloodied fingers on the hem of her shirt, a waft of rotten stench reaching her nose. So it was walker blood. Maybe they hadn't yet found any signs that Daryl was still alive, but they also hadn't discovered any evidence that he was dead.

She couldn't let this incessant fear cloud her thoughts, she had to keep it together.

There was still hope.


	6. Transformation

**Here's the next chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it! Please review, if you'd be so kind, it makes me happy and that makes me write faster ;)**

**Also of course, I sadly own none of the brilliance of Walking Dead.**

The way from the arena to the town's makeshift prison had almost been too easy. They had only encountered two people on their way over there, managing to duck behind the corner just in time to escape detection. But otherwise the streets seemed deserted and they were standing in front of the building before Carol had gathered her thoughts.

"Now," Rick whispered, looking back at them. "We don't know who or what is in there. We managed to break in once before, I'm sure it won't be that easy this time. Be prepared."

He carefully opened the door, raising his gun as soon as it was open wide enough for them to get through. They snuck through the hallway, straining to make out even the slightest noise.

"Where were they keeping Glenn and Maggie?" Carol whispered as quietly as she could.

Rick pointed to the left and rounded the corner.

"No one there," he muttered, as Carol and Michonne followed. "Come on."

They continued to creep through the hallways, mazes made out of concrete and scraps of metal. The silence made Carol nervous. What if there was no one here either?

They rounded the last corner and Carol could make out three doors.

They approached the first one and Rick opened it slowly. Carol's heart was pounding as she craned her neck to look over his shoulder into the room. It was empty.

Rick motioned for her to take a step back and he led them to the door in the middle. As it swung open Carol could feel her heart constrict. It looked like a storage room, broken furniture and cobwebs littering the floor. But nothing else.

She knew this was it. Only one more door.

Ignoring Rick's panicked call she ran over to the last door and wrenched it open.

"Oh my God," she choked.

There was a person sitting on a chair, his arms bound behind his back, his feet tied to the chair legs. The front of his shirt was torn and covered in dark red blood. A large gash on the side of his head was still oozing, the blood running down his temple, towards his chin and dripping onto his chest, as his head hung forward.

Carol hadn't seen him for over a year, but she recognized him immediately. It was Merle.

"Glenn looks worse," Rick growled, eyeing the man in distain.

Carol wasn't listening. She rushed over, placing the crossbow on the concrete floor.

"Merle," she hissed, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him. "Wake up!"

Merle's head lolled from side to side. Carol placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back against the chair, his head snapping back.

"Merle!"

His eyes opened, moving around in disorientation, trying to adjust. They finally focused on the woman in front of him. It seemed to take a second before he recognized her.

"I'll be damned," he said weakly, trying to sneer. The movement tugged at the corner of his wound and he winced. "They sent you to get my brother? Must be desperate."

Carol dug her fingernails into the flesh of Merle's shoulders as deep as she could and he gasped in pain.

"Where's Daryl?" she said, her voice shaking with barely controlled rage.

"I don't know," Merle groaned.

Carol grabbed him by the throat and pushed his head back brutally.

"Where is he?" she hissed, waves of hatred rolling off her.

"I… don't know," Merle moaned through clenched teeth.

"If something happened to him," Carol whispered, her voice dead calm. She closed the distance between their faces so their noses were only inches apart. "If he's dead… I swear to God I will make you pay for it."

Usually Merle would have laughed at someone like Carol making such ludicrous threats. But Carol was close to actually breaking his neck and the gleam in her eyes made her look insane. It was the first time in his life Merle had ever been afraid of a woman.

"It ain't my fault," he choked out, struggling with the bony fingers that were closed around his throat.

"Oh yeah?" Carol spat, tightening her fingers, feeling the blood pulse in his throat. "Torturing information out of Glenn? Trapping Daryl in this town? Letting the Governor take him?"

"I didn't… I didn't know he would…" Merle almost passed out from the lack of oxygen.

"Carol," Rick intervened, sounding alarmed.

Carol loosened her grip and Merle gasped for breath.

"I don't know where they took him," Merle coughed.

"You better come up with some ideas," Rick growled, glaring at the man.

"I swear I don't know," Merle said, his voice raspy. "The Governor had him taken out of the arena. Left me to fend off the walkers first. I don't know where he is."

Carol felt the anger rise from the pit of her stomach again. She had the sudden urge to clamp her fingers shut around his throat and to watch him choke and struggle against her, until he no longer could.

As soon as she thought it she grew ashamed and she jerked back her hand as though she was scared she would actually act on it. She wasn't an animal, she wasn't supposed to have those thoughts. Merle took a deep breath and then glanced up at her, disdain in his eyes.

"Fuckin' bitch," he hissed and spat at her, missing by a couple of inches. Carol smirked down at him in condescension.

"That all you got?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Merle growled.

"Shut the fuck up," Rick warned him. "We're here to help your brother! Would you rather have that psychopath kill him?

Merle's eyes flickered over to Rick for a second and his shoulders sagged slightly.

"No," he said quietly.

"We gotta search the building again," Carol said, looking at Rick and Michonne.

"Let's go," Rick said, nodding.

"Wait!" Merle said, his head shooting up. "You can't leave me here!"

"Sure we can," Michonne said, glaring at him.

"I could help you look for him!" Merle said, his eyes moving hastily between the three of them. "I know this building like the back of my hand!"

"I think we'll manage just fine," Rick said.

"They're gonna kill me!" Merle said in disbelief.

"So?" Carol asked coldly. "You would've killed any one of us without even blinking."

"But you're not like me, are you?" Merle said.

"No," Carol said, quietly. "No, I guess you're right. We're not like you."

A relieved grin spread across Merle's face.

"Let's go," Carol said, turning around and heading for the door.

"What?" Merle called, panic rising in his voice.

Carol turned around to look at him.

"I might not take pleasure in hurting people," she said. "but that doesn't mean I don't like seeing people get what they deserve."

She walked to the door, Rick and Michonne closely behind her.

"Fuck you!" Merle yelled, as Carol opened the door, rushing into the hallway to start the search again.

Except she couldn't. Because she wasn't alone in the hallway this time. What seemed like about a dozen men were running towards her, the barrels of their weapons aimed at her head.

"Carol!" Rick yelled as he came into the hallway after her.

Without even thinking about it Carol lunged across the hallway, wrenching open the nearest door and slamming it shut behind her as the shots started to ring in her ears.

As she pressed her back against the wall right next to the door, she could make out people shouting. Her heart pounding in her ears, she removed the shotgun from her shoulder, replacing it with the crossbow.

None of her training had really prepared her for a fight like this, but as if by instinct she grabbed hold of her shotgun. The door burst open and a large guy burst into the room. Carol swung the gun with all her might and smashed it into the man's face. She heard a loud crack, blood gushing onto her hands, running down her arm. The man fell to the ground unconscious, blood pouring from his nostrils.

Carol bent down and ripped his handgun from his belt. Checking to see that the safety was on, she stuffed the gun into her waistband, then raised the shotgun again.

"Carol!" Rick yelled as he burst into the room.

"I'm okay," Carol said. They jumped back into the hallway. Bodies were littering the floor that was turning red with blood. Michonne had her sword raised above her head small droplets of blood dripping onto the slain.

All of a sudden they heart shouts coming and four men came bounding down the hallway. Carol raised the shotgun, pulling the trigger without really aiming. The kickback slammed the gun into her shoulder as her shot missed one of the men by a few inches.

It was completely chaos, everyone shooting, not knowing whether they had successfully hit anybody. Michonne fought her way to the end of the hallway, disappearing around the corner.

Rick was busy shooting at two men, when one suddenly burst out of the room Merle was in, aiming his gun at Rick's back.

Carol leapt forward, crashing into him. It caught the man off guard, he lost his balance and fell back into the room, Carol crashing down with him. She instinctually let go off the shotgun to cushion her fall with her outstretched hands, the rough concrete tearing upon her palms.

The man lunged at her, slamming her into the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs. She gasped as his fingers closed around her throat. She clawed helplessly at his hands, feeling as if her lungs were about to burst. She thrust out her arms and scratched at his eyes. He howled and let go off her. Taking in breaths as deep as she could, she scrambled to her feet as the man roared in fury, blood running from scratch marks surrounding his eyes.

Carol knew that in a fist fight she wouldn't stand a chance against him. As he rushed towards her she reached back and wrenched the gun out of her waistband. Stumbling backwards, she fumbled with the safety and pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed the man's upper arm and he yelled in pain, but he still came towards her. Carol squeezed the trigger again, but nothing happened. The gun had jammed. The man noticed and a wolfish grin spread across his face. Using his entire body weight he drove Carol back and her head smacked against the wall, making stars appear in front of her eyes. Shaking her head, she raised the hand with the gun and hit him in the side of the face with it as hard as she could. He groaned and fell to his knees. Carol pushed away from the wall. The man got to his feet quicker than Carol had expected and he reached out to grab her. Carol jumped out of his reach, stumbling over the crossbow she had lost when they had fallen into the room. Her hands shot out and closed around it as he came for her, grabbing hold of her ankle. Kicking out violently she freed herself as he sprang to his feet, charging towards her.

Carol turned and ran out of the room into the hallway. She encountered only dead bodies, Rick and Michonne were nowhere to be seen. She heard the man rushing to catch up with her and she stormed down the hallway, her eyes searching for her companions. She could feel the man bounding down the corridor behind her and she crashed into the first door she encountered.

The room was empty and dark, but the light from the hallway shone on a door at the other end and without thinking about it she wrenched it open, slamming it shut behind her as she rushed through the second room, only equipped with a round table and two chairs. Pushing the chair out of the way she rushed through the room's other door into the hallway.

She didn't know how close the man was or whether she had managed to loose him, she rushed through the hallway, wrenching upon another door.

This time she closed it slowly behind her, careful not to let it make a sound. She scrambled through the debris lying on the floor to the other side of the room, pushed the other small door open, darted inside and closed it again, leaning against it.

It was dark in the room. A very small window was situated just under the ceiling on the other side of the room, throwing a small amount of light into the room.

Carol's breath was ragged, her heart pounding in her ears. She had the crossbow clutched to her shoulder as she tried to calm herself.

Then suddenly she heard a moan. Carol froze. It was an all too familiar moan. One she had heard about a million times. Walkers.

She raised the crossbow and frantically tried to make a moving shape out in the dim light. But there was nothing coming towards her that she could see. Carefully, she took a couple of steps into the room. As she moved, the light from outside shifted and fell into the opposite corner of the room.

And what Carol saw in that corner made her heart stop.


	7. Kill

"Oh my God," Carol gasped and rushed forward to where the sound had come from. She let the crossbow fall to the ground.

Daryl was in the corner, being held up by chains that were tied around his hands, raised high above his head, his feet dragging on the ground. His left eye was swollen shut and a nasty cut across his cheek was still bleeding.

"Daryl," Carol whispered, reaching out and carefully touching his arm. He didn't respond.

"Daryl," she said, her voice louder and she took a step closer. "Come on, wake up."

She cautiously brushed back the hair from his forehead, before placing her fingertips at his jaw, drawing his face up slowly.

"Daryl come on, it's me," she said. A small groan escaped his lips and his right eye fluttered open.

"Hey," Carol said and it took all her self-control not to start crying. Her eyes welled up and she couldn't help the smile that was spreading across her face.

Daryl's gaze was unfocused and Carol wasn't sure he was lucid enough to understand what was going on.

"Daryl," she said, taking his face into her hands, her fingers just brushing his skin, for fear of agitating his wounds. "It's me, Carol. I'm here with Rick and Michonne. We're gonna get you out of here."

Daryl choked and coughed violently, blood running out of the corner of his mouth. Carol reached up and brushed it away, wiping her bloody fingers on her shirt.

"It's gonna be okay," she whispered. Her fingers started to shake with suppressed rage as she took in the agony Daryl had suffered at the hands of this town.

"You'll be fine," she said, trying to concentrate on keeping him awake. "We're gonna get you out of here and Hershel will take care of you."

Daryl's head fell forward as he came close to losing consciousness again.

"No, Daryl!" Carol said insistently. She tried to hold his head up. "Stay awake, come on."

He didn't respond and Carol could feel panic rising in throat.

"Daryl!" she said loudly and slapped him hard on the uninjured side of his face. His head jerked up and his good eye opened a couple of inches, hunting around the room. It finally landed on Carol and after a few seconds she could feel him tense under her hands.

"C-carol?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"Yes," she said, relieved. "It's me. We're getting you out."

"What…you doin' here?" he choked out and grimaced as a split on his lip burst open from the movement, fresh blood running down his chin.

"Be quiet," Carol said sternly, wiping the blood away. "Talking only takes up energy and you need-"

The door flew open and Carol spun around.

"Rick!" she yelled, almost sobbing in relief. "He's here! He's alive!"

Rick stormed in, followed by Michonne, both of them looking worse for wear.

Rick took in Daryl's form, but didn't respond.

"Help me get him down," he said, reaching up. Michonne and Carol held up Daryl as Rick loosened the chains from the hook in the ceiling. Daryl was dead weight and Carol groaned as she almost lost her balance.

"I'll take him," Rick said, grabbing Daryl's arm and slinging it around his neck. Carol let go and wrenched the chains from Daryl's bleeding wrists.

"Let's get out of here," Michonne said, supporting Daryl from the other side.

"Wait," Carol said, as they were already half way across the room. She ran into the corner and bent down to pick up the crossbow she had dropped there earlier.

All of a sudden the door sprang open again and someone burst into the room. It was the man that had been hunting Carol and his eyes were glued to the three people directly in front of him, not noticing Carol in his peripheral vision. A grin spread across his face.

"Easy pickin's," he said, aiming his gun at Daryl.

Something snapped inside Carol. It was as if until now, she had tried hard just to survive. Only defend, not attack. But seeing this man wanting to kill Daryl in front of her eyes was too much.

She let out a scream of fury and hurled herself at the man. When he finally saw her coming towards him it was already too late. She crashed into him and they flew into the wall. He slumped to the ground and Carol jumped on top of him. Without thinking about it she started slamming the crossbow into the man's face over and over again. He was screaming in agony, but Carol wouldn't stop.

"Carol!" Rick yelled and Carol broke out of her trance. "We have to go _now_!"

Carol got to her feet. The man's face was gushing blood and she could just make out his eyes, as his chest rose and fell quickly. With utterly steady hands she raised the crossbow and aimed at his head. He opened his mouth as if to speak and Carol pulled the trigger. The crossbow seemed to buzz as it released the arrow, which whizzed through the air in the blink of an eye and lodged itself directly between the eyes of the man, who grew still immediately.

"Let's go!" Rick urged as they heaved Daryl out of the room into the next one.

Carol stood, looking at the man she had just killed for a second longer. Then she turned and hurried after the others.

"Let's hope we manage to get out of here before more of them arrive," Rick gasped, dragging the unconscious Daryl through the hallway. "Jesus, which way?"

"This way," Carol said, squeezing past Rick and leading them through several rooms until they were finally in the hallway that lead to the front door.

They were almost at the door, when Carol came to a halt.

"What is it?" Rick hissed. "Is someone coming?"

"No," Carol said. "You guys go on, I'll catch up."

"Are you crazy?" Rick asked incredulously.

"I'll be right behind you," Carol insisted. "You guys need more time anyway, I'll catch up before you guys are even at the wood house!"

Rick opened his mouth as if to speak, but seemed to decide differently.

"You sure you know what you're doing?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers. He knew what she was thinking.

"Yes," she said, nodding.

"Alright," he said and he and Michonne went outside.

Carol turned on her heels and raced back until she'd reached the door. She jumped into the room, the crossbow raised, looking for any movement. There was none. Only dead people lying on the floor. And Merle, still tied to his chair. He looked up as he heard her enter, seeing the crossbow aimed at his chest.

"You gonna shoot me now?" he asked dryly. "With my brother's crossbow? That's cold."

Carol approached him slowly.

"Anything broken?" she asked.

"What?" Merle asked, taken aback.

"Did they break any of your bones? Arms? Legs?" she asked.

"No," he said.

Carol lowered the crossbow and leaned it against the side of the chair. She withdrew her knife from her pocket and leaned over Merle.

"We found Daryl," she said. "He's alive. Barely."

Merle's face didn't move, but his eyes betrayed him. A look of relief gleamed in them.

"You swear to me you won't make any trouble," she said, "and I'll get you out."

"Yes," Merle said immediately. Carol shook her head.

"I want you to _swear_ it," she insisted. "On your brother's life I want you to swear that you won't stab us in the back."

Merle's eyes flashed.

"I know you're a bastard," Carol said. "But you got your convictions. And I bet one of them is that if one person saves another's life, that person will owe his savior. Am I right?"

"Yes," Merle said, his voice toneless.

"So if I let you out," Carol said. "you'll owe me."

"Yes," Merle repeated, looking at Carol with an unreadable expression.

"Swear it," she said.

"I swear," Merle said. "I swear on my brother's life."

Carol nodded and began sawing through ropes around Merle's ankles.

She worked as quickly as she could and after two minutes she had Merle out of his restraints.

"Can you walk?" she asked. She couldn't help feeling nervous, having him free. After all, she had been pretty aggressive before.

Merle got to his feet shakily.

"I'm alright," he said, taking a tentative step.

"We're gonna have to hurry," Carol said.

She bent down to one of the bodies and wrenched a gun out of the holster around its waist. She passed it to Merle, who looked surprised that she was freely offering him a weapon. Carol picked up the crossbow and made for the door.

"Give me the crossbow," Merle said, following behind Carol. "I taught Daryl how to use that thing, I know how to handle it."

"You only have one hand," Carol said as they made their way through the hallway to the front door.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that even if I had two hands you wouldn't be givin' me that crossbow. Am I right?" Merle said, stumbling after Carol, still a little unsteady on his feet.

Carol didn't answer. Of course she wouldn't. She still felt a sense of responsibility for it. No way was she going to hand it over to Merle.

"We'll have to run," Carol whispered and before Merle could answer she burst into the open and dashed across the street.

She could hear Merle lumbering after her as saw lights going on inside the houses and voices growing louder.

"Come one!" she yelled and sped up.

She reached the wooden house and wrenched open the door, waiting a second for Merle to catch up with her. They rushed through the house and Carol jumped out of the partially boarded up window, Merle following quickly behind.

"Rick!" she called, looking around.

"Over there," Merle said, pointing his metal clad stump to her left. Carol could make out a flash of light and they ran towards it.

With a gush of exhilaration she recognized Maggie's car.

"Come on!" Rick yelled from the pick-up.

"Get in there!" Carol yelled towards Merle.

She dashed towards the SUV, pulling open the rear door and jumping in as the engine roared and Maggie made a U-turn, speading down the forest road, the blue pick-up following right behind them.

It took Carol a second to realized she was sitting on Daryl's feet. He was stretched out across the bench.

As the car lumbered down the uneven road, Carol scooted to the other end of the bench. She carefully lifted Daryl's head and sat down in the seat. Cautiously she lowered his head onto her lap.

Carol's heart was beating like mad, adrenaline rushing through veins, her breath ragged and shallow.

She heard a small groan and glanced down. Daryl's good eye fluttered open and he slowly craned his neck to look up at her.

"You're bleeding," he rasped, his voice a mixture of concern and reprimand, pointing to her forehead. Carol reached up to touch her temple and hissed in pain as her fingers connected with the open wound. Her fingers came away bright red and it wasn't until now that she realized that the wound must have been bleeding ever since her head had smacked against the wall. Her right shoulder and parts of her neck and shirt were covered in blood.

"It's nothing," she said, smiling reassuringly at Daryl.

"Stop bullshittin' me," Daryl muttered. Carol snorted. This was a good sign.

"You look a lot shittier than I do," she said.

Daryl snorted and closed his eyes again. He raised a shaky, slightly mangled hand and Carol took it. He clumsily threaded his fingers through hers and placed them on his chest. Carol could feel his heart beating steadily under her palm and she was sure she'd never felt anything more amazing.

"Glad you're here," Daryl sighed, before his head rolled to the side, his fingers still clutching Carol's.

**I hope you fine Caryl fanatics liked it! If so, please leave a review! :)**


	8. One The Road

**New chapter. I've been a busy elf, so I'll have two more chapters up by Christmas and I promise you some nice Caryl moments. Read, enjoy and please review!**

They were right back where they'd started, more or less. Back on the road, searching for a safe place to stay. Only this time they weren't just running from walkers.

They didn't know whether anyone had come after them, they hadn't encountered anyone, not from Woodbury, nor anyone else.

Carol was glad for it, they were having enough problems already. They new group of people around Tyreese were making her nervous. His daughter seemed an unnerving kind of unstable and the two young men were twitchy. Carol took to watching them closely, especially around the children.

Having brought Merle along for the ride certainly hadn't made anything easier either. Carol had caught herself regretting her decision to free him a couple of times, but in the end she knew she'd made the right decision. Glenn hadn't spoken to her for three days when she'd turned up with him and given what Merle had done to him, Carol couldn't blame him. And Merle wasn't exactly helping his case, cussing at people and being rather unhelpful. Daryl was asleep for most of the time, so Merle seemed to be at a loss of where to put himself, both emotionally and physically. Because there really wasn't any room. Not only did they have Axel and Merle with them and Tyreese's group, but Michonne had gotten Andrea out of Woodbury while Carol had freed Merle.

It made Carol uneasy, seeing the blonde woman every day. She felt incredibly guilty, having been responsible for Andrea's abandonment. How was she supposed to address that?

"You alright?" Maggie asked, interrupting Carol's thoughts.

"Hm? Yeah," Carol said distractedly.

"You look worried," Maggie said, studying her friend's face.

"Just a lot on my mind," Carol muttered.

They had set up their camp for the night and they were sitting around the fire, the night air alive with the cinders crackling.

"Lot's been going on," Maggie said.

"You could say that, "Carol smiled weakly. "I just hope we manage to find a place to stay soon. Being hauled up in the cars all day isn't doing us any good."

"True," Maggie agreed. "At least it's not so bad in our car."

Carol bristled. She knew Maggie was hinting at Merle. Maggie hadn't explicitly said anything, but Carol could see the accusation in her eyes. The girl had every right to be pissy, Merle had more or less tried to kill Glenn, who refused to sit in the same car. Merle had been riding in the pick up, visibly uncomfortable with his fellow passengers.

"Yeah," Carol said, tightlipped. She got up and brushed the lint off her legs.

"I'm gonna go check on Daryl," she said, stepping over the log she'd been sitting on. She walked over to the tent and ducked her head inside.

Hershel was sitting next to Daryl, checking his pulse. Daryl turned his head slightly to see who'd come in.

He still looked a mess. The swelling in his left eye had slowly begun to go down, the skin around it looking more green than purple. The cut on his cheek tended to reopen when he spoke, so Hershel had tried to enact a temporary speaking embargo. Daryl had told him to shove it.

"Would you please tell him to stop treatin' me like a fuckin' invalid?" Daryl growled to Carol as she crouched down and entered the tent.

"Absolutely not," she said, smirking. "Right now you are one."

Daryl glared at her and she grinned at Hershel, whose eyes were twinkling in amusement.

"At least let me get up," Daryl muttered.

"You have a severe concussion," Hershel said, sounding slightly exasperated. They'd had this argument before. More than once. "You need to rest."

"I'm fine!" Daryl said surly.

"Don't argue," Carol said sternly and Daryl glowered at her.

"Get some sleep," she said.

"That's all I've been doin'!" Daryl yelled and winced, when the cut on his cheek stung at the action. "I'm bored out of my fuckin' mind."

"Poor baby," Carol mocked. Daryl harrumphed and turned away.

"Well," Carol said as she made her way back to the entrance. "if you're gonna be in a bad mood and all huffy, I'm gonna go."

"Oh come on!" Daryl exclaimed as she let the tent fall closed behind her. She had to sigh. Being cooped up, unable to move did not sit well with Daryl one bit. Being stuck in one place, incapable of moving about freely was slowly starting to make him panic and he grew surlier every passing day. It was starting to annoy Carol.

She turned to walk back to the fire, but only Glenn and Maggie were sitting on the log, Glenn's arms slung around Maggie's back, her head leaning against his shoulder. Carol didn't want to interrupt them. Nor did she want to have Glenn shoot her judgmental glances.

She walked to the edge of the forest, looking around their camp. If only they wouldn't have had to leave the prison. Admittedly, it wasn't the most comfortable place she'd ever stayed, but they had been able to finally relax, settle down a little and they had been relatively safe. Now it was all starting over again. It was exhausting.

Leaning against a tree, Carol's eyes wandered over the parked cars, all of them occupied with people trying to get at least a couple of hours of sleep. It was a precarious situation and it wouldn't take a lot for things to spin out of control. There were too many of them, too few cars, too long stretches of being perched on top of each other. It would only take one person to say or do something and the shaky balance would combust. Carol was pretty certain Merle would be involved in some form when that time came.

Something cracked behind her and Carol jumped.

"Sorry," Andrea said as she stepped into the light of the fire.

"Holy shit," Carol said, clutching her chest, her heart pounding.

"Heart attack?" Andrea asked, smiling.

"Pretty much," Carol answered, trying to calm down. Andrea stood next to Carol, her eyes on the couple by the fire.

"Look at those two," she said. "How incredible is that nowadays?"

"Very," Carol said thoughtfully. She turned to look at Andrea. "How are you doing?"

Andrea didn't answer for quite a while, her eyes still fixed on Glenn and Maggie.

"I don't know," she said finally. "It's… a lot. I haven't really processed it all."

"Understandable," Carol muttered. She took a deep breath and turned her whole body to face Andrea. "Listen, I haven't really had a chance yet to talk to you, we've been kind of busy these last few days. I just want you to know how deeply, incredibly sorry I am for what happened at the farm."

"What do you mean?" Andrea asked, taking in Carol's nervous expression.

"I mean that you got out of the car to help me and I ran off instead of making sure you were okay. That we didn't come back to look for you."

"Of course I came to help you," Andrea said, almost affronted. "Don't feel bad for that, Carol." She looked back at the fire again, digging her hands into her pockets.

"I was pissed that no one came back to get me," she stated. "I was really angry that nobody decided it was worth to check whether I was still alive."

"I'm so sorry," Carol said, her heart constricting. "We should've turned back, there's no excuse-"

"Stop obsessing over it, Carol," Andrea cut her off. "Michonne found me and saved my life. And I'm standing here and I'm… fine. And anyway, I would've probably done the same thing if someone else had been in my place. You have to know when to risk it and when to leave it be. And back then our group was in some real trouble. It's not like it is now with you guys."

"What do you mean?" Carol asked.

"Well you've all been together for quite a while since then," Andrea said, nodding to the camp. "And it's different, there isn't so much bad blood, so much suspicion. Not like before."

"I guess so," Carol said. She knew Andrea was right about that, but she didn't think they should get away with leaving her that easily.

"I mean," Andrea snorted, "Do you think a year ago you would've stormed into a guarded town to break out Daryl?"

"Probably not," Carol laughed.

"How's he doing?" Andrea asked, motioning into the direction of Daryl's tent.

"Getting better," Carol said. "Growing more irritated every day."

"That's a good sign," Andrea smirked.

"Yeah," Carol sighed. "But he's annoying the shit out of me. Snapping at me to let him get up and when I leave because he's being an asshole he gets all huffy. It's like looking after a child."

Andrea threw her head back and laughed.

"Seriously!" Carol said animatedly. "It's like we have two babies with us."

"Let's hope he'll be able to get back to his old self soon, then," Andrea grinned, obviously amused at Carol's frustration.

"God, yes," Carol muttered.

"Alright," Andrea sighed and moved forward. "I'm gonna try and get some sleep. Who's got first watch?"

"Me and Merle," Carol said dispassionately.

"My deepest condolences," Andrea grimaced. "Wake me at three?"

"I will," Carol nodded. "Good night."

Andrea made to walk towards her tent, when she stopped and turned around.

"You've changed," she observed. "I like it."

She smiled and walked on.

Out of the corner of her eye Carol saw Maggie and Glenn disappear into their tent. She sighed. She really wasn't looking forward to this watch, but she'd volunteered to team up with Merle to avoid any discord within the group from arising.

She quickly walked over to the back of the pick up where Merle was lying, huddled together under some blankets.

"Let's go," Carol said, rapping against the metal. Merle grunted and slowly disentangled himself from his covers.

Carol didn't wait for him, but stalked back to the fire where her jacket was lying. As she pulled it on she heard Merle approaching. He sat down on the log without a word and proceeded to stare into the fire. Carol sat down next to him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. This was probably going to be awkward.

She had just started to drift off with her thoughts, when Merle cleared his throat.

"How's my brother doin'?" he muttered, without looking at Carol.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Carol asked.

"He's not takin' too kindly to me right now," Merle said, his eyes flickering to Daryl's tent.

"I wonder why," Carol said coolly. Merle didn't say anything, his eyes fixed on the flames again. Carol sighed, cursing herself for feeling sorry for the guy.

"He'll be fine," she said. "His concussion is pretty bad, but Hershel reckons he'll be well enough to get up in a couple of days."

"That's good," Merle mumbled. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"You should talk to him," Carol said.

"And say what?" Merle snorted bitterly. "Sorry I beat up your friend? Sorry I fucked your life up again, sorry ya almost died because I was bein' a fuckin' idiot?"

"Sounds good to me," Carol said. Merle stared at her.

"You bein' serious?" he asked.

"I think that pretty much sums it up," Carol shrugged. "It'd be a place to start."

Merle mumbled something, sounding unconvinced.

"I'm pretty sure when he's good enough to get up he'll shoot me in the face," he said glumly.

"What?" Carol said disbelievingly. "Daryl's not like that. Not anymore. He's not you."

"You think I don't know that?" Merle said sharply. "Don't act like you know my brother better than I do, 'cause ya don't."

Carol didn't respond. She knew that if she said the wrong thing now, Merle might explode and that was the last thing they needed. Merle sighed exasperatedly, running his hand over his face.

"I just…" he said, sounding frustrated. "I don't wanna loose him again. Now that I get a second chance."

"Then don't," Carol said simply. "Just try to keep some opinions to yourself and help out. Even just trying goes a long way here."

"Yeah," Merle mumbled, trying to sound nonchalant.

They didn't speak much after that, only trying to keep each other from dozing off. Carol knew the entire situation was weighing heavily on Merle and even though he didn't really deserve it after everything he'd done, she hoped Daryl would find some way to forgive his brother. She hoped she'd spoken the truth and Daryl would prove that he was nothing like his brother.


	9. Justify

**And another little chapter! The next one will be all Caryl, I swear. Please review!**

Daryl was seriously pissed off.

All these people swarming around him, treating him like he was about to die, telling him when to sleep, when to eat, when to walk, when to talk. It was fucking infuriating. He was a grown ass man, but everyone treated him like a child!

He'd been awake most of the night, occasionally dozing off. But he kept having weird nightmares and always woke up, drenched in sweat. He kept that to himself.

He could see dawn approaching and wondered when they would finally get going again. At least in the car everybody had to sit on their asses, not just him. And if he was honest with himself, he liked the company. Sure, he was more of a loner, but being unable to move more than a few feet every day kind of limited his options and while everyone else was always bustling about, he was lying in the tent like a fucking invalid. It was nice to be around some people for a change.

And in the car they couldn't just walk off. Daryl knew he was being childish, but it irked him that Carol was so adamantly letting him know that he was getting on her nerves. She usually put up with all his crap without complaining, but this time she stalked off whenever he started to get crabby. He'd gotten used to her letting him vent his frustration. Maybe he'd been taking advantage of it and she'd finally decided she'd had enough of him. It wouldn't surprise him.

He heard steps approaching his tent and someone unzipped the entrance of his tent. Rick's face appeared in the opening.

"You're up early," Daryl said. Rick widened the opening and climbed into the tent.

"Had the last watch," Rick said, bleary eyed.

"Anything interesting?" Daryl asked.

"Nah," Rick sighed, rubbing his eyes, before looking at him. "How're you doing?"

"Fine," Daryl said. "Just can't wait to get up and movin' again, all this lyin' around is drivin' me crazy."

"So I've heard," Rick smirked knowingly.

"Well they should just quit their fussin'!" Daryl exclaimed defensively. "Then I wouldn't have to bite their heads off."

"Right," Rick said, sounding unconvinced.

"It's true," Daryl mumbled.

"How's your head?" Rick said, evidently trying to change the subject.

"Getting' better," Daryl said, choosing not to mention the fact that getting up too fast nearly made his head split in two. Rick would definitely tell Hershel and then he'd be strapped to a bed for the next two months for sure. No way.

"You starting to remember anything?" Rick asked.

"Nah," Daryl said. "Last thing I remember is leavin' the prison. Hershel said somethin' might come back after a while, but it could just as easily be gone."

"Probably not the worst thing that could happen," Rick said.

"Probably not," Daryl agreed. He cleared his throat and fidgeted uncomfortably. "Listen, Rick, I just wanted to say thank you. For goin' back to get me, I mean. It was a hell of a risk and I'm real grateful."

"It's what we do," Rick winked and Daryl smiled. "You shouldn't really thank me though. To be honest, I thought it was too dangerous to go back in there. I wanted to get everyone out of the prison and then come up with a real plan, take time to regroup."

"Why didn't you?" Daryl asked.

"Carol," Rick said, his eyes gauging the other man's reaction, but Daryl's face was unmoved. "She all but put a gun to my head, said if I didn't wanna come right away she'd just go on her own."

"You serious?" Daryl asked, sounding doubtful.

"Yeah," Rick snorted. "When we got to the town we had to almost physically restrain her from storming out in broad daylight. She got pretty mean about it."

"Carol? Got mean?" Daryl asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Seriously," Rick insisted. "Ended up doing it, too."

"What?" Daryl said sharply, his spine stiffening.

"Walked out unarmed, tried to blend in," Rick said, his eyes fixed on Daryl. He'd known this was going to be an issue. "It was the only way to try and get any information about where you were."

Daryl didn't respond, but the look he gave Rick said it all.

"I had my eyes on her the whole time," Rick said, briefly wondering why he felt such a need to justify himself. "You should've seen her, man. Walked about like she'd always lived there and when someone came up to talk to her she ended up gardening with her for three hours."

"Huh?" Daryl asked in confusion.

"Don't ask," Rick snorted. "But she managed to find out that the Governor had you in that arena. You remember anything about that?"

"No."

"Carol wanted to run over there immediately; started cursing at me when I said we had to wait until it was dark. Thought we'd have to tie her to a chair."

"She's good at naggin'," Daryl smirked.

"No shit," Rick muttered. "But you weren't there so we went to the house where they kept Glenn and Maggie. Found Merle."

Daryl's gaze shoot up, fixed on Rick. Rick rubbed his jaw, his eyes filled with amazement and amusement.

"Carol went at him like she was gonna kill him. Choked him so tight he almost passed out. Hadn't seen that coming."

"He hit her?" Daryl asked, his voice low and dangerously calm.

"No," Rick said quickly. "Tied to a chair. We left him there. That's when we got ambushed, they knew we were coming. Got separated."

"Was Carol with you?" Daryl wanted to know anxiously.

"At first," Rick said. "then we got separated. It was like a maze in there, I had no idea where she'd gone off to. But turns out, she can take pretty good care of herself."

Daryl didn't answer and Rick noticed his clenched fists.

"She found you," Rick said after a moment. "We finally caught up with her and got you out of there."

Daryl nodded curtly. Rick sighed, torn.

"Listen," he finally said, keeping his voice low. "She killed someone."

"What?" Daryl asked sharply.

"He was pointing a gun at you and she just… snapped," Rick continued. "Bashed his face in with your crossbow before she shot him. She hasn't talked about it, I don't know how she's doing with that. I'm just letting you know that this may become an issue."

"Got it," Daryl said, his mind already racing.

"Alright," Rick said. "I'm gonna go wake the others up, we need to get going."

He turned to duck out of the tent.

"Rick," Daryl said. "Is Merle… is my brother makin' trouble for anyone?"

"It's fine," Rick said. "Nothin' we can't handle."

"Don't give me that bullshit," Daryl said, irritated. "If he ain't keepin' his mouth shut-"

"He's getting better at it," Rick interrupted. "To be honest, I just think he's really uncomfortable being around all of us. Keeps to himself mostly. Only talks to Carol sometimes."

"He what?" Daryl hissed, sitting up straight and grimaced when a sharp pain shot through his head.

"Relax," Rick said sharply. "Nothing to worry about."

"You don't know my brother," Daryl growled, the anger visible on his face.

"You'd rather we left him?" Rick asked. Daryl didn't answer. Rick rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Well you can thank Carol for that, too," he said sarcastically. "'Cause I would've left him. She went back and got him. So if you wanna complain you know who to talk to."

Rick scrambled out of the tent, but leaned back down to look inside.

"I'm not gonna let anything happen to her," he said earnestly. "Trust me on that."

Daryl didn't respond, so Rick sighed and walked away to wake the others.

Daryl didn't really know what to think of all this. Part of him was really glad that Carol had come along and rescued him, and part of him wanted to punch Rick for putting her in so much danger by bringing her along. Part of him was incredibly proud of how well Carol had handled herself, and part of him wanted to yell at her for being so careless. Part of him was relieved that Merle was here, and part of him wished he'd never come back into his life.

But he knew one thing for sure: If Merle so much as laid a hand on Carol, he was going to beat the living shit out of him.


	10. Saving Me

**And as an early Christmas present, I'm giving you a Caryl scene. Hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas and be so kind and leave a little gift in the shape of a review ;)**

Getting everything packed up and ready to go back on the road had been especially difficult that morning. Nobody seemed to have gotten a good night's sleep and the general tone of discontent within the group was almost palpable.

Carol had been relieved when they'd finally managed to get going, creating at least some distance and room to breathe for everyone.

Daryl had been lying stretched out on the backseat of the SVU as usual, Carol sitting in the seat at his feet. Neither Maggie nor Glenn seemed to be in much of a talking mood and the fatigue and rhythmic shaking of the car soon lulled Carol to sleep.

The absence of the vehicle's motions seemed to seep into her unconscious state and she jerked awake. The car was parked and the front seats were empty. Her head whipped around and to her relief she saw Daryl still lying on the bank, his head propped up against the door with a pillow, his eyes fixed on her.

"Whats going on?" she asked nervously.

"Relax," Daryl said. "They're just meetin' up with the others to decide which way to go."

"Okay," Carol said as she leaned back, trying to relax. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You needed to sleep," Daryl stated. "don't look so good."

"Thanks," Carol said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean," Daryl mumbled. He looked at his hands, trying to busy himself. Carol continued to watch him as he grimaced.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothin'," Daryl said. "Legs are crampin'." He added, pointing at his feet, which he'd placed in front of the driver' seat next to Carol's legs, arching his body at an awkward angle.

"Then get them up here," Carol said, motioning for him to stretch out his legs across her.

"It's fine," Daryl muttered, refusing to look at her. Carol rolled her eyes.

"Quit being such a baby," she said. Daryl's eyes snapped up and he glared at her.

"I said it's fine!" he snapped. "Leave it alone!"

"Jesus Christ," Carol said in exasperation and she leaned forward. She swiftly grabbed Daryl's calves and with a bit more force than she actually needed lifted them up onto her legs. She felt Daryl trying to move back, so she grabbed ahold of his ankles to keep them there.

"Come on, Daryl," she said, glaring at him. "You're uncomfortable and I don't mind."

After another second of struggling, Daryl relaxed his legs and Carol let go off his ankles. She sighed and leaned back against her seat, closing her eyes.

"Why can't you stop arguing with me?" she asked, sounding exhausted.

"I'm not!" Daryl exclaimed. She turned her head and looked at him.

"Sorry," Daryl mumbled. He drew his hand over his face, looking agitated. "I just…"

"What?" Carol asked, when he trailed off.

"I don't know how to do this," he muttered.

"Do what?"

Daryl let out a sigh and his eyes flickered around the car, looking everywhere but at Carol. His hands were twitching and Carol was sure she'd seldomly seen him so uncomfortable.

"I…"Daryl began and broke off. "I just… thanks."

Carol stared at him in disbelief, one eyebrow raised, while he still refused to look at her.

"That's what's so difficult to say?" she asked. Daryl didn't answer, his eyes resolutely glued to the back of the front passenger seat.

Carol opened her mouth to tease him about it, but the expression on his face made the words die in her throat. Carefully placing her arms on his outstretched legs in her lap, she turned to look out of the windshield.

"Any time," she finally said, her voice quiet. But she knew he'd heard her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw his head turn to look at her. Carol closed her eyes and silence fell.

The minutes passed and Carol had almost drifted back to sleep when Daryl spoke.

"Why'd you take Merle?" he asked. Carol turned her head to look at him and this time he met her gaze.

"Does it matter?" she asked, shrugging.

"I gotta know," Daryl said, sounding pained.

"Because he's your brother," Carol stated simply.

"But look what he's done to Glenn," Daryl said, looking torn. "And what a pain in the ass he's around here."

"I'm not an idiot," Carol said calmly. "I know this is going to be difficult. I knew that before I went back to get him."

"So why did ya?" Daryl asked, his voice small.

"Honest?" Carol asked and Daryl nodded. "Because I thought you'd never forgive me if I let your brother stay tied to a chair, so the Governor's men would kill him. Because no matter how much of an asshole he is and what he's done, he's still your brother."

Carol tried to assess the situation. She wanted to say more, to reassure Daryl, but she knew she had to tread carefully. If she overstepped her boundaries he'd retreat.

"He's your family. And I know that if someone left my family to die… I could never excuse that."

As soon as she'd said it, she regretted it. She knew Daryl would misunderstand her. He stiffened and his eyes grew dark.

"You mean like we left Sophia," he muttered.

"No," Carol said decisively. "Daryl." she said, reaching out and taking his hand. He froze and his eyes snapped back up at her. "Nobody left Sophia to die. Nobody, least of all you. And Sophia wasn't my only family. All of you, you're my family, too."

Her eyes were fixed on Daryl, making sure he understood her.

"And we're your family, too," she continued, squeezing his hand. "You don't just have Merle. You have all of us. You know that, right?"

Daryl's eyes lingered on their entwined hands and he gave a small nod.

"Good," Carol said and smiled.

Neither of them said anything for a while and Carol waited for Daryl to let go off her hand and retreat back behind his shell, uncomfortable with the depth of the conversation they'd just had. But Daryl didn't remove his hand and although the current position wasn't entirely comfortable for Carol she did her damnedest not to move an inch.

"You don't owe me anythin'," Daryl mumbled, still looking at their hands.

"What?" Carol asked.

"You don't owe me anythin'," Daryl repeated. "for lookin' for Sophia."

Carol sat back and jerked her hand away in anger.

"Serious Daryl?" she said angrily. "We back to this?"

"I'm sorry," Daryl muttered and he looked so miserable Carol almost apologized herself.

"You got nothing to be sorry for!" she exclaimed. "And stop feeling bad!"

Daryl didn't respond and Carol silently cursed herself for her outbreak.

"I'm never going to forget what you did for my little girl," she said when she'd calmed down. "I'll always be grateful for that. And yeah, I'll always feel just a little indebted to you for that. But do you really think that's the only reason I went to look for you?"

It was a rhetorical question, but the look on Daryl's face was answer enough.

"Daryl," Carol said softly. "I didn't do this out of some sense of debt or duty. I came to get you, because you're important to me and I care about you."

She reached out to take his hand, but he automatically jerked it back. Determined not to give up she kept her hand outstretched, looking at Daryl. After a few second he slowly stretched his hand out again and let her take it.

"You're my family and I couldn't bear to loose you," Carol whispered, blinking fast to stop her eyes from watering.

Daryl looked up at her and for a second she could see that he understood what she was saying and that he believed her. And then his guard was back up, his eyes hardening ever so slightly, his shoulders stiffening slightly.

"Well," he said in an effort to sound light hearted. "Guess now it's my turn to save you again, huh?"

"I guess so," Carol said quietly. She knew she should be grateful for coaxing him out of his shell at all, but she couldn't help wishing he'd just feel comfortable enough with her to never feel the need to hide. Wishful thinking.

"I think that's a good deal," Daryl continued. "I save you, you save me."

Carol eyed him warily. She knew he was trying to sound as superficial as he could, but he knew exactly she'd understand that he was being entirely serious. And it was true. He did save her, in more ways than one. And maybe she did that for him, too. It was as close to a recognition of whatever they had that she was going to get, probably for a long time.

"Yeah," she smiled back. "That's a good deal."

And as if Daryl could sense her uncertainty, he reached out, taking hold of her outstretched hand with both of his. Carol didn't let the surprise she felt be visible on her face at his actions. He smiled briefly at her, before looking out of the window, still holding her hand.

Maybe this was all she was going to get for now. But that was okay. She wouldn't trade it for anything.


	11. A Good Man

**One last long chapter to end 2012. I hope you guys had a lovely Christmas, I got really sick and still am. So, to make sure I get better really fast and write lots of more chapters, please be so kind and review, it's so nice to feel appreciated ;) I hope you like it!**

**Also I don't own TWD. If I did, I would rule the universe. Fact.**

It seemed that their quest to find a safe place to stay was doomed to fail. Miles and miles they drove, but all they encountered were walker infested towns and woods. The morale within the group was low and tempers were running high.

Daryl was sure that something was going to happen sooner or later and he kept a close eye on the newcomers whenever he could. They were making him more nervous by the day. Tyreese looked like the only one who had his shit together. Daryl had almost decided to like him, but when he caught Carol laughing heartily at something the man said, he'd quickly changed his mind.

Another week had gone by in which they had done nothing but drive around, barely scraping by with their quickly dwindling supplies. Daryl's fingers were itching to grab his crossbow and go out on a hunt, but even he knew he wouldn't make it very far. He'd started walking for longer periods of time each day under Hershel and Carol's watchful eyes and being able to move about more freely had cheered him up some. In fact, he'd been in a pretty good mood as they were about to hit the road again, when Carol walked over to the SUV and ducked her head inside to look at him.

"Somethin' wrong?" he asked as he took in Carol's irritated expression.

"No," she sighed, "I'm gonna go drive in the pickup for a while."

"What, why?" Daryl asked.

"Switching with Andrea," Carol said simply.

"Why?" Daryl repeated, growing suspicious. Carol shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Giving her a break," she said, averting her gaze. "She's not used to having a screaming baby around."

Daryl was having none of it.

"My brother ridin' in that car?" he asked sharply.

"Yeah," Carol admitted grudgingly.

"He botherin' them?"

"Not really," Carol said. "She just needs a few hours of quiet and you're not gonna find them in the pickup."

"So why d'you gotta go?" Daryl asked, trying not to sound too disappointed.

"Because I don't mind the baby," Carol answered. "And I also don't mind Merle. Not as much anyway."

Daryl's eyes were trained on Carol, trying to decipher whether she was lying.

"You sure about this?" he asked.

"It's fine," Carol said, rolling her eyes at him. "I have Judith to keep me busy and I'm sure she can drown out your brother in a screaming match."

Daryl smirked as she winked at him.

"I'll see you later," she said.

"Alright," Daryl muttered. She smiled at him and walked to the blue pickup. Daryl's eyes followed her every movement. He could make out Merle already sitting in the car as she swung herself onto the seat and shut the door behind her.

There would be four of them squeezed into that space, five if you counted Judith. That couldn't be pleasant. They'd have to practically sit on top of each other. That image did _not_ sit well with Daryl.

He saw Andrea walk over and she got into the seat next to him.

"Hey," she said. She let out a deep sigh and leaned back, looking relieved.

"I'm really grateful Carol offered to switch," she said before turning to look at him. Daryl didn't know it had been so obviously written across his face, but Andrea seemed to notice immediately. "I hope that's okay," she said hurriedly. " It's not for long, I just need a couple of hours."

"Sure," Daryl grunted. He didn't feel much like talking and thankfully Andrea seemed to get the message.

Daryl had to admit that he couldn't blame Andrea, as they drove along. It was nice to be surrounded by quiet when you had to spend all of your time with a big ass group of people. Luckily everyone in their car seemed to agree on that, Glenn and Maggie also only talking occasionally to each other. Daryl kept peering through the windscreen, trying to make out the shapes of the passengers in the pickup in front, but eventually gave up.

He knew he should get some rest, but the thought of Carol and Merle made him nervous. In more ways than one.

Daryl was relieved when they stopped to take a short break after three hours. He opened the door and swung his legs out of the car, getting up quickly. A sharp pain shot through his head, but he ignored it, his eyes searching. Carol had already gotten out of the car and she was holding Judith in her arms. Daryl made his way over to them.

"You okay?" he asked. Carol looked up at him and smiled.

"Fine," she said, gently rocking Judith. "Look, Judith," she said in a sweet voice. "It's your Uncle Daryl."

She threw her head back and laughed at the look he shot her and Daryl's mood improved immediately. There were few things he enjoyed as much as seeing Carol happy, even for the briefest amounts of time.

"How's she doin'?" he asked, stepping in closer and leaning over to see Judith's face, her eyes gleaming up at him. He reached out and carefully stroked her cheek with one finger. Judith responded by babbling wildly. Daryl would kill himself before he ever admitted it it, but that little girl had totally wrapped him around her little finger.

"Look at that," Carol grinned as Judith reached out a small hand towards Daryl and grabbed him with her tiny fingers. "She likes you."

"Course she does," Daryl grunted smugly and Carol snorted.

"You want to hold her?" she asked.

"Later," Daryl muttered, his eyes snapping up as he saw his brother vanishing into the trees by the road. "Be right back."

He brushed past them and slowly followed Merle into the woods. He walked into the direction he'd seen his brother disappear in and only had to walk a couple of feet before he could make him out.

Merle was standing with his back to him, but when Daryl's feet shuffled over the dried leaves on the ground, he turned around. An all too familiar expression spread across Merle's face as he saw Daryl.

"Lil' brother," he drawled, his tone almost mocking. "Good to see you up an' about."

"Yeah," Daryl said tonelessly. The grin on Merle's face dropped a little, as he motioned towards the road.

"See you've made some friends," he said.

"I did," Daryl acknowledged, his eyes never leaving Merle's face.

"Yeah," Merle mused. "They worth it? All that," he gestured towards Daryl's black eye.

"Wouldn't have all this if you hadn't gone after Glenn and Maggie," Daryl said calmly.

"Now listen here," Merle bristled. "What was I supposed to do, huh? Dude wouldn't tell me where you were! You expect me to just let him go?"

Daryl didn't answer.

"You're my baby brother," Merle said, taking a step towards Daryl. "No fuckin' way I'm gonna pass up the chance to make sure you're alive."

"Couldn't figure out another way to do that, huh?" Daryl asked. Merle stopped in his tracks, his gaze growing more guarded.

"This is what it's come to?" he asked. "You choosin' their side over mine? I'm your brother, your family. Who are they?"

_They're my family, too._

Merle grew visibly frustrated at his brother's silence.

"You know we can only count on each other, don't ya?" he said. "It's always been that way and it always will be. Just you an' me."

"That so?" Daryl asked quietly.

"Yeah," Merle said, nodding. He walked over and placed a hand on Daryl's shoulder. "We got on fine before all this shit happened and we'll do it now. Just you and me? We'd manage. But all those people? Makin' noise, not knowin' how to hunt, carryin' around a fuckin' baby? They're walker food."

"They ain't as useless as you think," Daryl said. Merle snorted in derision and came in closer.

"I know you've grown fond of 'em," he said insistently. "But you know that the chances of survivin' with all of them around are shit. But we could do it."

Merle could see the doubt in his brother's eyes.

"Don't think those people love you," he said. "They like havin' you around 'cause you're handy in tricky situations. They don't see you as anythin' more than someone who brings 'em food and keeps 'em livin' a little longer. Nothin' more."

Daryl didn't respond. Merle was a master manipulator. He'd always been able to focus on someone's deepest insecurities and his words hit home. Daryl knew it wasn't true, he knew these people cared about him, but there'd always been this nagging voice at the back of his head that he'd never quite fit in with them.

"Let's get outta here," Merle insisted. Daryl looked at his brother.

He knew Merle had a point. If they went off on their own they could survive. They both knew how to hunt and how to defend themselves. They'd done it all their lives. But what would they be living for? Just to survive? Nothing to look forward to, nothing to brighten the bad days, to give them a reason to keep going?

"No," Daryl said, his eyes still on his brother.

"What?" Merle asked, genuinely looking surprised.

"I ain't leavin'," Daryl said. Merle stared at his brother and then barked out a laugh of disbelief.

"I shoulda known," he muttered bemused, rubbing his chin. "It's the chick, right?"

Every muscle in Daryl's body tensed and Merle noticed.

"Makes sense now," Merle continued. "why she went all ape shit on me."

Daryl couldn't help but feel a rush of pride for Carol; his brother sounded almost impressed.

"So you finally got yourself a girl, huh?" Merle asked, his voice filled with condescension.

Daryl didn't answer.

"Well hell," Merle shrugged. "Bring her along, we can manage with one more."

Daryl blinked in surprise. He'd expected to hear a lot of things from his brother, but offering to take Carol along was not one of them.

"Could be fun," Merle smirked. "I like her."

That was all it took. Daryl took a quick step forward and grabbed his brother by the front of his shirt, anger rolling off him in waves.

"You come near her," Daryl hissed. "You put even one finger on her and I'll cut off your other fuckin' hand. Don't think I won't."

He let go and shoved his brother back. Merle stumbled, but quickly regained his balance. He looked at his younger brother with a curious expression.

Daryl couldn't remember ever having seriously threatened his brother and he had no idea how Merle would react.

"Alright," Merle said finally. "looks like I hit a nerve."

Daryl clenched his fists, breathing heavily. Punching Merle in the face seemed like a pretty good idea right now.

"Calm down," Merle said, noting his younger brother's furious stare. "you got nothin' to worry about with me."

Daryl didn't believe him for a second, but he relaxed a little.

"If anythin'," Merle added. "You should keep an eye on that Tyreese dude. He looks interested."

Daryl knew Merle was trying to irritate him and even though it worked, he tried not to let it show.

"So," Merle said. "We're not goin' off on our own?"

"No," Daryl said, shaking his head. Merle nodded slightly, eyeing his brother for a moment.

"Alright then," he sighed.

"I don't want you to go anywhere," Daryl said truthfully. "but if you're stayin' you're gonna need to get your shit together. Can't just sit on your ass, annoyin' people. Everyone's got to pull their own weight."

"That so?" Merle said, raising an eyebrow. Then he grew serious. "I don't like this," he said truthfully. "I lost a hand 'cause of these people. I don't really feel like helpin' 'em out all that much. But you're my blood… and I guess, if you stay… I stay."

Daryl nodded curtly.

"I hope you know whatcha doin'," Merle mumbled.

"So do I," Daryl said.

* * *

"Carol, have you seen Daryl and Merle?" Rick asked, coming up behind her.

"No," Carol lied, avoiding Rick's gaze.

She was terrified. She'd seen Daryl follow Merle into the woods. She knew the two brothers had a lot to talk about, to fight about, to make up for. But she couldn't help her mind from going to a different place.

Merle didn't want to be with the group, that much was clear. He either didn't say anything at all, and if he did open his mouth, it was usually to insult someone. And even though Daryl opened himself up to the group more and more, she knew that Merle had a hold over his brother that could render all other ties void. Daryl never talked about his past, but Carol knew enough about him to understand that he idolized his brother, who had probably raised him. A bond like that could almost never be broken.

What if Merle persuaded Daryl to leave the group and go off on their own? What if Daryl let himself be swayed to join his brother? What if Daryl _wanted_ to leave them?

"Stop it," she muttered to herself under her breath.

She had to snap out of it. However strong the connection between Merle and Daryl was, Daryl cared about everyone in the group. He wouldn't just up and leave. He wouldn't leave her.

Judith let out a tiny wail in her arms and Carol started rocking her, trying to shut out her thoughts.

"We gotta get going!" Rick yelled towards Carol, as everyone started to get back into the vehicles. Carol looked back up at the woods, but there was no movement. She turned and walked slowly back to the pickup.

"Where are those two?" Rick growled impatiently.

Carol didn't answer him, trying to focus on Judith instead.

Maybe they were already gone. Maybe they'd taken the first chance they had and bolted. Without saying goodbye.

"Yo!" Rick yelled and Carol whipped round. Daryl and Merle appeared between the trees. Relief rushed through Carol and she cursed herself for always expecting the worst.

"Sorry," Daryl mumbled to Rick as he walked past towards the SUV. He gave Carol a small smile and she almost beamed back at him.

"Let's go," Rick said and opened the passenger side door. Carol got in carefully, scooting as close to Carl as she could to make room for Merle. He swung himself into the car and slammed the door shut. Rick got behind the wheel and their caravan resumed their journey.

The first three hours of their journey hadn't been entirely pleasant, Merle growling insults occasionally, trying to agitate them. But now he was silent, staring out the window. Carol couldn't help but steal glances at him, curious as to what had transpired between the two brothers. Had Merle really asked Daryl to come with him? And if so, what had Daryl's answer been? Yes? Maybe? No?

"What?" Merle asked, catching her looking at him.

"Nothing," Carol said. Merle rolled his eyes and turned to look out of the window again. Carol glanced to her left and saw Carl had fallen asleep, leaning against his father, whose eyes were trained on the road ahead of him.

"Actually," Carol said, turning towards Merle again. "Would you mind taking her? My arms are falling asleep."

"I don't think-" Merle began, sounding slightly panicked. But Carol thrust Judith at him and he reached out automatically. Carol let the baby slide into Merle's outstretched arms and flexed her own. She could feel Rick eyeing the situation nervously, but decided to ignore him.

Merle looked thoroughly at a loss, as he held Judith stiffly, staring at her.

"Thanks," Carol said, rubbing her arms. She had to stop herself from laughing at the slightly horrified expression on Merle's face. "She's a total darling," Carol continued. "Likes everyone."

"Especially Daryl", Rick said and Carol looked towards him in astonishment.

"Don't surprise me," Merle muttered, studying Judith curiously. The baby opened her eyes and blinked up at the strange man.

"Daryl adores her," Carol said, smiling.

"That's my baby brother," Merle said, flinching back slightly as Judith suddenly reached out for his face. After a moment of hesitation he shifted her weight onto the arm with the metal stump and reached out with his hand to grasp onto her fingers. Then he looked at Carol, his face serious.

"My brother's a good man," he said, sounding almost aggressive.

"I know that," Carol said taken aback.

"He likes to act all tough," Merle continued, riled up. "but he's got a good heart."

"I know," Carol repeated. "He's the best man I've ever known."

That seemed to shut him up as he studied Carol.

"Good," Merle finally muttered, sounding satisfied.

He reached out and tickled Judith under her chin. She squealed with delight, her eyes twinkling and the corner of Merle's mouth curled into a smile.

"Daryl's never had it easy," he said, his eyes still on Judith. "and he deserves to be happy. And if he's happy with you... then that's fine, I guess."

Carol stared at Merle in amazement. She slowly began to realize that maybe Merle had actually asked Daryl to go away with him, but the way Merle was talking it looked like Daryl had given a very different answer than she had expected.

"He does," she agreed. "But there's… it's not like that."

"Yeah, right," Merle snorted, his familiar sneer reappearing for a moment. "That's why he almost socked me one when I brought ya up."

He looked up at Carol and rolled his eyes at her expression.

"Look, whatever. Frankly I don't give a shit what it is or what it ain't like. But you better not hurt him."

"I won't," Carol said truthfully.

Merle grunted, apparently satisfied for the moment. Carol looked over at Rick, but he had his eyes firmly planted on the road ahead.

Judith squealed again in Merle's arms.

"I don't know about y'all," Merle muttered. "but she's alright."

Carol smiled. She'd hoped Judith would help appease Merle in some way, but it was obvious the little girl had done more than that. Carol would never have picked Merle for someone who was easily won over, but Judith seemed to already be tugging at his heartstrings.


	12. Hope

**First chapter of the new year! Oh, all ye followers and readers, leave me some reviews to start the new year :)**

They had been on the road for seven hours when Rick saw it.

"Up there," he said, the excitement in his voice barely contained, as he pointed ahead.

Carol strained her neck to make out what Rick had discovered. It was a house. Carol could feel her heart leap. They'd found a potential place to stay. And not a moment too soon.

"Let's check it out," she said, grinning at Rick, whose eyes were gleaming.

Rick turned onto the road leading up to the house, the uneven ground shaking the rusty pickup. Carol turned around to see the other cars following them up the hill.

"Wake up," she said, gently shaking Carl by the shoulder. The boy's eyes blinked open and he looked around in confusion.

"Bet ya it's overrun," Merle mumbled, leaning forward and looking through the windshield.

"Optimistic and helpful as always," Carol muttered and Merle shot her a murderous look.

Rick pulled up next to the house and turned to look at them.

"Alright," he said. "we'll split up. One group checks out the surroundings, makes sure there's no walkers hiding. The others go inside, check every room. And I mean every nook and cranny. Can't afford to be careless."

"Yes, _dad_," Merle growled and Carol automatically elbowed him in the ribs. It was something she did when Daryl nagged someone and he knew she meant no harm by it. Whether Merle knew it was a different question. He shot her a look that contained mainly surprise and before either of them could say anything, Rick had wrenched open his door and was calling to the others.

"Let's go," Merle said and got out. Carol was glad they weren't discussing the issue.

She carefully scooted along the seat and got out of the car, holding the sleeping Judith to her chest. The others had left their cars as well. Most of them were gripping their weapons, their eyes darting around nervously. But Beth and Axel were beaming up at the building.

"It's pretty," Beth breathed and Carol had to smile. The house wasn't exactly a palace, but after living in a prison and tents for the last year, she had to admit it was a great improvement.

"Let's not get our hopes up yet," Rick said carefully. "We have to check it out first, we don't know what's there."

"Let's do it," Daryl said, coming up between Axel and Beth. He was holding his crossbow in his hands and seemed itching to act. His eyes fell on Carol and he gave her a small grin. Carol could feel Merle's eyes on her, making her self-conscious. She smiled back quickly, before turning to look at the house.

"So," Rick said. "we'll go through the house. Every floor, every room, all cabinets and whatever's in there. Check them all. No exceptions. You," he pointed to the group of newcomers who looked slightly forlorn. "you check around the house; trees, bushes, everything. Make sure there are no walkers."

"Got it," Tyreese said, nodding and his group walked off, their weapons raised.

"Okay," Rick said, turning to his group. "Daryl, Andrea, Michonne, Merle, Maggie, Glenn and me we'll check the house."

"What about me?" Carl piped up.

"You stay here make sure nothing happens," Rick said.

"Come on!" Carl called out indignantly.

"Take him," Carol said. "We'll be fine."

"You sure?" Rick asked and Carol felt a wave of irritation rising in her.

"I can handle a gun," she said snidely, the remark coming out a lot cooler than she'd intented. She could practically hear Daryl's grin widen, but refused to look at him.

"You kinda got ya hands full though," Merle said, motioning at Judith.

"I can take a gun," Beth said.

"I'm still here, too," Axel said, waving. "We're fine, ain't nobody about."

"Okay," Rick said. "Let's go."

The group made their way to the house. Daryl walked past Carol closely, his arm brushing against her. Carol knew it wasn't coincidental, Daryl would never touch someone if he didn't want to. He meant to reassure her and Carol appreciated the gesture. As she turned she caught Merle's eyes, which were once again glued to her. Carol couldn't make out his expression, but it made her uncomfortable. Merle was obviously watching her closely and wasn't bothering to hide it either. They walked into the house and Carol leaned against the front of the pickup, carefully adjusting Judith in her arms.

"This could be good," Axel said, coming up next to her, looking at the white house walls.

"Very good," Carol agreed.

The house didn't look very big, it was doubtful that there would be enough rooms to house them all comfortably. But it would be great to not have to put up a tent day in and day out and everyone could do with a good night's rest.

"You think we could stay here?" Axel asked.

"I don't know," Carol sighed. "If at all, then not for long. I don't think we're all going to fit in there without wanting to kill each other after a couple of days. And I don't know if we're far enough from Woodbury yet."

She turned and saw Axel's face falling.

"But," she said quickly. "It'll be great if we could stay here for a couple of days, maybe even two or three weeks. We all need a break."

"Yeah," Axel said. "How's it goin', ridin' with the brother from hell?"

Carol snorted and Beth came up, listening with interest.

"It's fine," Carol answered. "He's not so bad."

"Right," Axel said, the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Let me guess, he's not bad. He's just... misunderstood."

"Oh no," Carol laughed. "He leaves no mystery there. But I think we can't judge him so easily. We have no idea what he's been doing, what he's been through. It isn't good or bad anymore, is it? It isn't black and white like that."

"You're too good for your own good," Axel murmured, looking at Carol.

"Maybe," she said, winking at him and he smiled.

Carol had been nervous about the man before, especially when he'd hit on Beth. But she guessed that he was essentially a good man who'd just been locked up too long. She was glad to have him along for the ride.

"How's the little one?" Axel asked and leaned over Carol, peering at the sleeping baby.

"Good," Carol said. "She's been very well behaved on the ride."

"She's so tiny," Axel said, his voice filled with awe. He reached out tentatively for her little hand. Still fast asleep, Judith curled her little fingers around his hand and Axel gasped.

"Did you see that?" he asked, full of excitement. "She's asleep, but she still grabbed my hand!"

"Yes, I saw," Carol answered, trying not to laugh. "All babies do that."

"Really?" Axel asked, sounding impressed and Carol grinned broadly at him.

At that moment some people came out of the house towards them. Carol felt someone stop in front of them and looked up to see it was Daryl. His eyes darted between Carol and Axel for a second, his expression unreadable.

"What's it look like in there?" Carol asked him as Axel let go off Judith and took a swift step away from her.

"Empty," Daryl said gruffly. "Couple o' beds, two couches. Gotta work out sleepin' arrangements."

"Alright," Carol said relieved, smiling at him. Daryl glared back at her before turning away.

"Okay," Rick called, walking up to them. "we got three small bedrooms. They won't fit much. Andrea and Michonne are takin' the smallest and Maggie and Glenn'll get one. If it's alright with you guys, we'll give the biggest one to Tyreese and his people."

"Why exactly?" Merle asked, coming up behind Rick.

"Because they need a place to sleep, too," Rick said. "And I'm sure you don't wanna share a room with them. Am I right?"

Merle grunted and Rick rolled his eyes.

"The living room's big, we can all fit in there with blankets."

"Rick," Carol said quickly. "If Glenn and Maggie don't mind, I think it'd be a good idea if you and Carl take a bedroom. Judith's not gonna sleep through an entire night and she'll keep the other's up."

"You're right," Rick said. "But I'm sure we could fit one more person in there. Carol, if you want-"

"Beth could sleep upstairs with us," Carl interrupted, managing to sound impressively nonchalant. "She could help, she's good with Judith. And it'll give Carol a break."

"You okay with that?" Rick asked, looking at Beth.

"Totally," Beth said, her eyes darting towards Carl.

"Great," Carol said dryly.

She had to admit she would be glad to have a break from child care during the nights. But she was well aware that it wasn't the reason Carl had suggested it. Something was going on between him and Beth and had been for a while. Most of the others, including Rick, seemed to be completely oblivious to it, but Carol had noticed it immediately. As long as Rick was sleeping in the room with them she would hold her tongue, but she was determined to step in at some point. They did _not_ need an accidental pregnancy.

"You guys get on in," Rick said. "I'll wait for Tyreese."

Carol pushed herself off the pickup and walked up to the door with Beth and Axel. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see that Daryl hadn't moved an inch.

She entered the house, a smell of wood and stale air hitting her as they walked through the hallway.

"Through here," Carl said and lead them into the living room.

There wasn't a lot of furniture, only a wardrobe and a sofa. Axel and Merle pushed them to the walls, creating a large space in the middle of the room.

"Dibs on the sofa," Merle yelled quickly.

Everybody started protesting, but after a few minutes of furious arguments being exchanged, Merle simply sat down on the sofa and refused to move. Deciding that it wasn't worth a fight, the others started to divide up the area.

Carol walked out, not really caring where she slept and went into the adjoining kitchen. Holding Judith with one arm as best she could, she opened the cabinet doors to peer inside. Plates, glasses, flatware were all there. She even found some bowls and two big pots under the sink. That would make cooking for such a large group of people a lot easier. Rooting around further, Carol discovered several cans of tomatoes and beans. She was relieved; they wouldn't have to go to bed hungry tonight.

"Find something?" Beth asked, coming into the room.

"Yeah," Carol said, pointing to the cans.

"Nice," Beth said. "D'you want me to take her for a bit?"

"Thanks," Carol said and carefully let Judith slip into the girl's arms. "My arms are about to fall off."

"You should get over there," Beth said, cradling the baby. "make sure you get a place big enough to stretch out."

Carol walked over into the living room, where everyone was currently gathered.

"Carol," Maggie said. "You can sleep here." She pointed to the corner farthest away from the door.

"Alright," she said.

She glanced up and saw Daryl, striding over to the corner, carelessly dumping her things he'd gotten from the car there. Then he set down his own bag and his crossbow right next to her things and turned around again. Carol averted her eyes. It was like Daryl was daring her to protest and she didn't feel like getting into a fight.

"What's the plan?" Maggie asked, looking around.

"Daryl 'n me are gonna go huntin'", Merle said, still sitting on the couch.

"Isn't it kinda late?" Carol asked.

"Don't matter," Merle scoffed. "We'll find somethin'. Take a look around at least."

"Okay," Rick said, sounding uncertain. He looked over at Daryl who refused to meet his eyes. "The rest of us can take a look around the house, see what we can find."

"Let's go," Merle said. He got up and made to leave the room, shooting back a glance to make sure nobody had darted towards his couch.

Carol felt an uneasiness come over her. It was too late in the day to hunt. It would be dark soon and then it really wouldn't be safe. But it wasn't so much the fear of walkers that unsettled her. Every minute Merle got alone with his brother would give him an opportunity to change his mind and leave them. And she was certain Merle would know just how to do it and wouldn't hesitate to do it either.

Daryl followed his brother and walked past Carol. She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Daryl," she said. "be careful."

Daryl shrugged off her hand as if it were poisonous.

"Jesus, woman!" he bellowed, glaring at Carol. "Stop actin' like I'm fuckin' runnin' off, would ya? We're just goin' huntin'! I ain't gonna be ya fuckin' bodyguard all day!"

He stormed out, Merle glancing back at Carol before following his brother.

Silence settled over the room and Carol stared at the spot Daryl had just been standing.

It had been a long time since Daryl had really gone off on her like that. He knew his words always hit home with her. Carol tried her damnedest to retain her composure and dug her nails into the palms of her hands to keep her eyes from welling up.

"Let's get to work," Rick said awkwardly, trying to break the tension and everybody started shuffling out of the room.

Carol didn't move until she felt a warm hand settle on her shoulder and she turned around to see Tyreese looking down at her.

"Don't mind him," he said in his deep voice. "I'll kick his ass when he gets back if you want."

Carol had to smile inspite of herself at his attempt to cheer her up.

"It's fine," she said, trying to sound unaffected. "Happens a lot."

"It shouldn't," Tyreese said, frowning. "He's got no right."

"Yeah, well…" Carol shrugged, but Tyreese shook his head.

"Nah, he doesn't," the man insisted. "you should tell him that."

Carol looked up at him and he smiled encouragingly at her before he left the room, leaving Carol to gaze after him in contemplation.

Maybe Tyreese was right.


	13. No Time To Waste

**I have returned! This chapter is a little short, but I hope you guys like it. Please shower me with reviews ;)**

**I don't own The Walking Dead.**

Daryl stormed out of the house, walking quickly towards the edge of the adjoining forest. He could hear Merle's steps behind him, but refused to turn around.

He was seriously pissed. Why and at whom was a bit of a mystery. No actually, it wasn't. He was pretty much angry with everyone right now.

Ever since his capture at Woodbury he'd been cooped up, making him restless and nervous. During all the time on the road he'd been barely able to really do anything, which didn't really help the situation. And now that he was getting better…

He'd been in pretty good mood when they'd discovered the house, hopeful that they'd found a place to stay for a couple of weeks at least. He'd been in an even better mood when they'd found the house to be void of walkers.

But then he'd gone outside to tell Carol she could come inside and he'd seen them. Carol and Axel, leaning against the pickup, huddled way too closely together, his face so close to hers while she was beaming at him, Daryl had felt an instinctive urge to point his crossbow at him. When Axel had seen him, he'd taken an immediate step back. Daryl was pretty sure he'd made it clear to the convict that he would lose a limb if he put the moves on Carol. Even without actually saying the words, it seemed like the man had gotten the message.

What really irked him though, was that Carol had looked so happy. She had been holding Judith in her arms, her eyes gleaming and she was grinning widely at Axel. He knew it shouldn't make him this angry, but even though it was ridiculous, he wanted to be the only person that Carol looked at like that. The only guy anyway.

And if that hadn't been enough to bring his temper up to boiling point, she'd gone all nervous when Merle told them they'd go out to hunt. It was clear she was trying to hide her emotions, but he could make them out at once. She was nervous about having Daryl go off with Merle. He had seen it in her eyes, her fear. And it wasn't for his life either. She was scared he'd run off with his brother and not come back. It made Daryl furious that she apparently thought so little of him, had so little faith in him, that she thought he would just leave them without saying anything.

He'd walked straight out to avoid saying anything, but when her warm fingers had brushed against his arm, he couldn't help himself; it just burst out.

"You in some kinda hurry?" Merle called, trying to catch up with his brother. Daryl only grunted in response, slowing his pace.

They made their way through the trees, their feet shuffling through the grass and fallen leaves, while they searched the ground for tracks.

"Could be game in the area," Merle said after a while, crouching down, his eyes on the earth.

"Yeah," Daryl mumbled, trying to look interested. He knew he should concentrate on the task at hand, but his mind was preoccupied.

"Get it together, will ya?" Merle said, sounding exasperated. He got back up and walked past Daryl, shooting him a look of disdain before he took the lead. Daryl decided not to argue with him and followed quietly.

They spent a good two hours exploring the woods, before Merle finally lucked out and managed to shoot a buck. He looked self-satisfied as he picked the animal up by his legs, a grin across his face. Daryl guessed that Merle probably hadn't been able to do these things as often as he liked while living at Woodbury.

"Ain't much, but it'll do," Merle said, his eyes on the darkening sky. "Best be getting' back."

"Alright," Daryl agreed and turned to walk back. He might have been thinking about other things, but he'd learned early on in life that you always needed to find your way back and his legs carried him automatically.

"So," Merle said, falling into step beside him. "that was interestin'."

"What?" Daryl said dryly.

"Your little outburst," Merle said, giving his brother a don't-bullshit-me look.

Daryl didn't answer, but Merle wouldn't let it go.

"That happen a lot?" he asked.

"Not lately," Daryl muttered. He didn't really feel like talking about it, but he knew his brother could be absolutely relentless if he wanted to be.

"Huh," Merle said. Daryl turned to look at him, expecting to hear some sort of taunt. But Merle was quiet.

"What?" Daryl asked, finally.

"Well," Merle said, a small smirk on his lips. "I can understand if ya blow up at that holier-than-thou asshole Rick."

"I don't," Daryl said, feeling a need to defend the man.

"Really?" Merle asked, sounding surprised. "What, you tellin' me you only ever lose your shit wi' her?"

Daryl didn't say anything, but that seemed answer enough for Merle.

"That's healthy," he smirked and Daryl shot him a dark glance. "And she puts up with it, 'cause you save her ass?"

"Ain't like that," Daryl said, a knot in his stomach.

"That's what ya said," Merle retorted.

"I know what I said," Daryl growled through clenched teeth. It sounded so much worse coming from Merle.

Merle snorted and shook his head in disbelief.

"You really know fuck all about women, huh?" he asked.

"Fuck off," Daryl muttered, feeling heat creeping up his neck.

"Hit a nerve," Merle said. Then he grew more serious. "I know I ain't always been the best brother and I guess I shoulda been the one to teach you about this shit, huh?"

"Whatever," Daryl answered.

"Yeah," Merle continued. "didn't really do a good job with that."

"Nah," Daryl agreed dryly. "y'always ended up fuckin' the girls I liked."

"True," Merle said, not able to contain a bark of laughter. Then he looked over at his brother, his eyes wary. "You worried about that here?"

"She'd cave your skull in 'fore she'd let ya touch her," Daryl snorted, but his voice wasn't as careless as he'd tried to sound and Merle wasn't fooled.

"Ain't gonna happen here," he said earnestly.

Daryl briefly glanced at his brother and the heartfelt expression on his face caught him slightly off guard. The whole thing was making him uncomfortable. They didn't usually have conversations like this.

"Nope," Merle continued, unfazed. "that chick's too nice for my taste. Always runnin' round after everyone, tryin' to please people. Disgustin'."

Daryl snorted and Merle grinned.

"Listen," he continued. "I ain't tryin' to interfere-"

"Then don't," Daryl said sharply.

"-but," Merle said pointedly. "don't let all that shit from before ruin this. I know it's partly my fault you're this fucked up and that sucks. But don't be a pussy about this, it ain't worth it. Nobody's got time for that in this world. Just fuckin' go for it."

Daryl didn't answer, but Merle seemed to have said his part and Daryl was glad his brother had decided to shut up.

He knew Merle was right. About pretty much everything. The world was all fucked up and they could die any day. He shouldn't be this afraid about entrusting himself to Carol. He knew he had nothing to worry about with her. She was well aware that he was fucked up, the way she was always extra careful not to overstep her boundaries. And she was pretty fucked up herself. They understood each other and where they were coming from.

Daryl felt worse about what he'd shouted at Carol with every step he took. They got closer and closer to the edge of the forest as darkness set in and in his mind he tried to think of a way to apologize to her without actually apologizing. He fucking hated this part.


	14. Worry

**My dearest followers and readers, time for a little Caryl bitch off! Read and enjoy and make me one happy nerd by leaving me lots and lots and lots of reviews!**

Daryl waited until Merle had skinned and gutted the buck. Then he grabbed the animal and made his way into the house. With every step his feet seemed to get heavier, until he was in the hallway and they felt like blocks of concrete.

There was no way around it though. He'd behaved like a fucking asshole to Carol and he had to apologize for it. He just hoped he'd be able to get her alone, away from those fucking prying eyes and ears of the group. This wasn't anyone else's business.

He had no such luck, as it turned out. Opening the door to the kitchen, Daryl saw Carol, Beth and the new chick bustling about, while Axel and Carl were busy entertaining Judith, sitting on the floor. Fucking great.

His eyes were trained on the back of Carol's head, but it was Beth who turned and spotted him first.

"Hey!" she said, and smiled at him. "You guys got something?"

"Yeah," Daryl muttered, his eyes still fixed on Carol, but she didn't turn around, her back stiffening when he spoke. It was official then; she was seriously pissed.

"Give it here," Beth said, waiving him over.

"It ain't much," Daryl said, handing her the buck. "Merle caught it."

"Always better than nothing," Beth said brightly.

"Right," Daryl said, not listening in the slightest.

His heart had picked up the pace and his palms started to sweat as he took a step closer to Carol.

"Talk to ya for a minute?" he mumbled, fully aware that everyone's eyes had turned towards them. He had to get her out of the kitchen.

But Carol didn't turn around or give him any sign that she had heard him. She continued working, her stirring growing a little more animated. Daryl groaned inwardly and had to fight the instinct to just flee. He reached out and tentatively touched Carol's shoulder.

Carol spun around, brandishing the wooden spoon and Daryl took a step back before she took out one of his eyes.

"What do you want?" she snapped harshly, looking so furious Daryl thought he caught a brief glimpse of how she'd looked at Merle back in Woodbury. A small rush of sympathy for his brother overcame him; Carol looked a little scary.

"Can we go outside?" he asked, his voice low. But he knew everyone could hear him; they had all stopped talking when Carol had turned around.

"Sorry," Carol said, her voice cold as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I'm pretty busy. If you want to say something, say it here."

Fucking hell. He could see, she was gonna make him work for it.

"You serious?" he asked. Carol didn't respond, she just raised an eyebrow and continued to look at him with an icy stare.

"Alright," Daryl sighed, his eyes darting around the room. Everyone was looking at him, some with a slightly fearful expression – the new chick and Beth – others looked to be trying very hard not to grin – Carl and Axel. Daryl turned to Carol again, trying to ignore all of them and he took a deep breath. He took a step closer to Carol so there were just a few inches between them and he looked at her imploringly.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled as quietly as she could, hoping that only she could understand him in such close proximity. "Sorry 'bout what I said earlier. I was outta line."

His body relaxed a little and he felt pretty pleased with himself. He'd said sorry. Twice.

He looked at Carol and grinned at her, expecting a tentative smile to appear on her face.

"Whatever," Carol said coolly and shrugged, before she turned around again.

Daryl was dumbfounded. What the fuck? He'd just apologized to her, he'd used the actually word 'sorry'. That almost never happened!

"Carol-" he said, but she cut him off, spinning around again,

"I've had it, Daryl," she exclaimed. "I've had enough of your outbursts, which, if you hadn't noticed, are only ever directed at me! I'm fucking tired of putting up with it and always having to be the bigger person!"

Daryl was so taken aback by her shouting that for a moment he didn't know what to say.

"You gotta yell about it?" he asked, finally, painfully aware everyone else was watching the conversation like they were on a fucking TV show.

"Really?" Carol asked, sounding incredulous and seething. "So you get to shout at me in front of everybody, but if I do it it's a problem?"

Daryl did not have an answer for that. Carol let out a sigh and seemed to regain her composure. She turned and started stirring again.

"We're eating in an hour," she said tonelessly.

Daryl stood rooted to the spot for quite a while, staring at Carol's back, but she didn't turn around again.

The others started to slowly take up their activities again, none of them meeting Daryl's gaze for fear of incurring his wrath.

Then Daryl turned on the spot and was out of the kitchen in two strides, slamming the door behind him. He stormed out of the house, his legs carrying him straight towards the woods.

"Don't be stupid," he heard Merle call and stopped dead. His brother came up next to him.

"Fuck off," Daryl snarled, glaring at his brother.

"Chill, would ya?" Merle said, rolling his eyes. "You need a moment, that's fine. Don't be a fuckin' idiot and wander off into the woods at night, little brother. Walkers'll have ya for dinner in no time."

Daryl grunted and before Merle could say anything else he turned and walked across the yard, giving the front door a wide berth. He stalked to the back of the house and after making sure that no one was following him or looking at him through the windows, he sat down on the grass.

He didn't quite know what to think. Sure, he was pissed that everyone had seen Carol blow up at him. He didn't want them to think he was some wimp who let just any woman cut off his balls.

But it wasn't just that he was angry. Panic started to spread across his mind. What if that was it? What if Carol had really finally had enough of his antics and outbursts and had decided to just leave it be? He couldn't really blame her. The two of them never really had it easy and sooner or later he would go off and she'd let him. She always let him.

He'd gotten used to her letting him rant and then forgiving him without expecting an apology. Why the fuck did he think that was okay?

Daryl's breath quickened as a fear began to settle in his stomach. What if she didn't forgive him this time, no matter how much he apologized? Maybe she would just ignore him from now on, living along side him, but not with him. Was it really over between them?

Daryl could deal with a lot of shit. He'd even be able to cope with Carol being angry with him for a couple of days. But if this was serious… he knew he didn't deserve all the chances she gave him, but Daryl couldn't bear her giving up on him. She was his rock, the constant in his life; she was his reason for staying and for trying so damn hard every day.

What did he have in this world if he didn't have Carol?

He sat there, every possible outcome running through his mind, most of them disastrous. He was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he almost didn't hear Beth call him in for dinner.

He wasn't really hungry anymore. The fear of the extent of Carol's anger had settled in his stomach like a rock. But he got up anyway and followed the girl into the house.

Everybody was sitting on the living room floor, several large steaming pots and bowls in the middle. Daryl took a full plate from Maggie with a grunt and settled on the floor next to his brother. He forced himself to eat, but he was mainly busy with glancing over at Carol every five seconds. She was sitting with Beth on her ride side and that giant Tyreese on her left. Apparently Tyreese was one funny motherfucker because Carol kept laughing and giggling when he spoke. Jealousy spread through his body every time Carol smiled at the man, until Daryl held his spoon so tightly in his hand his knuckles turned white.

"Get it together, will ya?" Merle mumbled between bites. Daryl growled, nearly fuming with anger.

"Look at 'em all cozy," he seethed, not able to mask his fury.

"So?" Merle said, shrugging. "Ain't like they're fuckin'."

Daryl let out an instinctual snarl and glared at his brother.

"Whatever," Merle said and turned back to his meal.

Daryl continued eating his food listlessly, always keeping an eye on the group in the corner. When he'd finished he put the plate down on the floor and got to his feet.

"Gonna clean the bow," he mumbled to Merle.

"You didn't even fire it today," Merle said dryly, but Daryl walked out without responding.

If he had to spend one more minute watching Carol laugh at something Tyreese said and the dude practically eye fucking her, Daryl would probably do something stupid, like stabbing the man to death with his spoon. Better to just remove himself from temptation.

* * *

Daryl sat around outside with his crossbow, acting as though he was actually doing something for what felt like hours. He just wanted everybody to have already gone to sleep when he came in, so he didn't have to see Tyreese's fucking face. Or Axel's. What the fuck was happening that all of a sudden Carol was like the head cheerleader everyone wanted to bang?

_Just because it took you fuckin' forever to figure out she's gold, doesn't mean everyone else was that fuckin' stupid._

Daryl groaned and rubbed his eyes. This was fucking with his head so bad he thought he might actually go crazy soon. He'd been fully aware that Carol was one of the most important people in his life, but it had taken all of this shit happening to really see how fucking dependent he was on her.

Daryl picked up his crossbow and made his way into the house again. Glenn and Maggie were still in the kitchen, but Daryl was in no mood for chitchat, so he walked past them quickly. He slowly opened the living room door. It was dark inside and he could already hear his brother snoring loudly on the sofa. Lucky bastard was probably real comfortable. He stared around the room, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. He'd originally planned to sleep next to Carol in the corner, making damn sure to put himself between her and Axel in case the man got any ideas. But he was sure she had thrown his stuff to the opposite side of the room now.

Slowly he started to make out more and more shapes on the ground and to his surprise he saw that the only unoccupied space was still next to Carol. Stepping between the bodies carefully, he hoped she was already asleep. He didn't fancy feeling her silently resenting him.

He crouched down and put his crossbow down next to his stuff before he unrolled his sleeping bag. Trying hard not to accidentally touch Carol's back he climbed into the sleeping bag and zipped it up, staring at the ceiling.

He was wide awake. Fucking perfect. Not getting a good night's sleep was definitely not going to improve his mood tomorrow. Daryl felt like from now on life was going to be pretty much unbearable.

Suddenly he heard movement beside him and from the corner of his eye he could make out Carol turning towards him, her head resting on her arm.

"Where'd you go off to?" she whispered. Daryl considered not answering for a second, the surly child in him wanting to give her a taste of her own medicine.

"Outside," he finally responded, still staring at the ceiling. Carol didn't answer for so long that Daryl assumed she'd probably fallen asleep.

"Daryl," she whispered, reaching out and touching his arm. Daryl's resolve to not interact with her dissolved immediately at the touch and he turned his head to look at her. He could make out her eyes gleaming in the moon light, a miserable expression on her face. "I'm really sorry-"

"Don't," Daryl interrupted her and she looked confused. "Got nothin' to apologize for. Didn't say anythin' that wasn't true."

"I'm still sorry I said it," Carol whispered.

"Well, don't be" Daryl insisted. "You're right. I can't go on yellin' at ya whenever somethin's buggin' me. And you gotta stop apologizin' for shit that ain't your fault."

"Okay," Carol said quietly. Daryl sighed, turning his whole body to face her.

"I'm sorry," he said. "That shit I said, that wasn't true."

"It kinda is," Carol said, trying to sound light-hearted, but Daryl wasn't fooled.

"Nah," he said. "You're definitely not a burden; nobody here works their ass off as much as you. And I haven't had to look out for ya for a long time. And that don't matter neither, 'cause I always will be; can't help it."

Carol didn't immediately respond and Daryl was scared he hadn't said enough.

"The thing about me worrying that you're gonna run off with Merle," she began.

"Forget what I said," Daryl insisted, but Carol shook her head.

"That's true," she continued. "I did worry about that. I do worry about that."

Daryl didn't answer, he wasn't sure what to say.

"But I need you to know," Carol said heatedly. "that it's not because I don't trust you or because I don't have faith in you. Because I do. I trust no one like I trust you. And I wouldn't think for a second that you would leave us all behind on a whim. I don't even think Merle would, to be honest."

"Then why d'you worry about it?" Daryl asked quietly.

"Because that's me," Carol said, her voice wavering. "I don't want to think those things, but I can't help it. My mind goes there all the time, after all the things that have already happened. It's just how I think. I'm a worrier."

Daryl opened his mouth to retort, but he could think of nothing fitting to say. Carol's eyes were boring into his and his mind was going pretty blank. They lay there looking at each other, Daryl's heart beating a lot faster than it normally did. And he could swear that for a second he saw Carol's eyes drift down to his lips and if all those fucking people hadn't been about he was pretty sure he'd have had the courage to kiss her.

Instead he carefully reached out and took her hand in his. Slowly, he threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed her hand. She smiled at him as he placed their hands on his chest, right over his thundering heart. He wanted Carol to know how he felt about her, how she affected to him, what she meant to him. He wasn't ready to say it yet. But he was certain she understood, her smile widening. She scooted closer to him, laying her head down so close to his, he could feel her breath on his face. He smiled back at her before they closed their eyes.

That's how the others discovered them sleeping the next morning, faces only inches apart, their hands still grasping each other.


	15. Water

**My wonderful lovelies! Sorry it took so long for me to update, parallel to exams, I'm also battling some pretty fierce writer's block. Please help me fight that bitch by leaving me lots of nice reviews! And also, if you have any wishes on what you'd like to see happen, throw some suggestions my way! I hope you enjoy! x**

Daryl woke up later than he usually did. Everyone else had already left the living room. Well, almost everyone.

He'd woken to see Carol's face only inches from his, breathing regularly, her features looking relaxed. His initial instinct had been to jerk back and make a hasty retreat, but that had only lasted for a second. After making sure nobody else was there, he'd kept very still, listening to Carol's breath and holding her hand, just like he'd done last night.

It was one of those moments he wished would never end. Sure, at some point it'd be nice of her to wake up, but then they'd probably have to talk about whatever this was and Daryl knew he would fuck that up almost immediately. Merle was right, he didn't know shit about women, least of all how to talk to them about how he felt.

But that wasn't the only thing Merle was right about. Why the fuck didn't he just go for it? Who knew how long they'd be around for? Fuck. It was really irritating when Merle was right and right now he was being all shrinky and accurate and it annoyed the shit out of Daryl.

It wasn't just that uncertainty of how much time they had on this earth before they got bit.

If Daryl didn't get his shit together soon, he was sure someone else was going to beat him to it. Sure, Axel had gotten his message and seemed to respect it, but how long? Carol apparently liked him and that was already enough to make Daryl see red. And that big fucker Tyreese. He was seriously getting on Daryl's nerves. All big and muscly and nice and understanding at the same time? Asshole.

The thought of Tyreese made his muscles clench and squeezed Carol's hand harder than he'd meant to. She stirred, but didn't wake when he quickly loosened his grip. He didn't feel like getting up, but there was no way he'd give anyone an excuse to call him lazy. Not to mention the fact that he sure as hell didn't want to give either Merle or Glenn the chance to accuse them of doing it in the living room while everyone else was working. No fucking way.

As carefully as he could he extricated his hand from Carol's fingers, a small smile crossing his lips as her grip tightened for a moment before she let go. Silently he got out of his sleeping bag, put on his shoes and left the living room, gripping his crossbow. He quietly closed the door behind him and walked down the hallway, towards the front door.

He walked outside, the brightness of the sun blinding him for a moment.

"Morning," Rick called.

They were sitting on the grass outside, looking like they'd just started to have breakfast.

"Mornin'," Daryl mumbled, strolling over. He let himself fall to the ground next to Carl who was holding Judith in his arms.

"Sleep well?" Glenn asked innocently, but Daryl could see the amusement in the guy's eyes.

"Yeah," he said coolly, glaring. Glenn looked like he was trying very hard not to grin, but Daryl decided to ignore him.

"What's the plan for today?" Maggie asked before popping a piece of canned peach into her mouth.

"Well," Rick said thoughtfully. "we gotta find a water source, we're running low. There has to be a well or something around here. Need to find it. Another group could go on a run, see what's around. Hunting wouldn't be a bad idea either."

"Sounds good," Daryl muttered, glancing around. "Where's my brother at?"

"Took off really early this morning," Rick said. "Said he'd go hunting."

"Alone?" Daryl asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, I offered to come along," Rick said defensively. "he wouldn't have none of that."

"'course he wouldn't," Daryl said. "I ain't worried. Nothin's gonna happen to him."

His eyes fell on Glenn whose expression made obvious that he wished something would happen to Merle. Daryl couldn't really blame him.

"We'll split into groups after breakfast," Rick said.

"We got anythin' besides this crappy fruit?" Daryl asked, peering listlessly into the can of peach Maggie had handed him.

"Might still be some beans from last night," Beth said. "If you can get that down this early."

"No problem," Daryl muttered and made to get up.

"I'll get it," Tyreese said, who was already on his feet. "Think I also saw some left over tomatoes."

Daryl grunted, refusing to thank the man. He was sticking to his plan to seriously dislike the guy.

"Where's Carol?" Carl asked.

"Sleepin'," Daryl answered.

"She should get up and out here before all the food gets eaten," Maggie said, glancing at the already empty cans in their midst.

"I'll wake her while I'm in there," Tyreese said, walking around the group to the front door.

Daryl's back stiffened, his eyes glued to Tyreese's back. The man going into a room alone with a sleeping Carol? No. Fucking. Way.

"Where are you going?" Glenn asked as Daryl sprang to his feet.

"Right back," Daryl growled, speeding after Tyreese into the house.

The man was almost at the living room door, his hand outstretched.

"Yo!" Daryl yelled and Tyreese turned to him in surprise.

"Whats up?" he asked as Daryl came to a halt in front of him and the slight alarm in Tyreese's face told him that his fury was pretty much printed on his face.

"I don't wanna sound like an asshole sayin' this," Daryl lied. "but that ain't your job."

"What isn't my job?" Tyreese asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Alright," Daryl said, deciding to drop the act. "I made this clear to Axel and I'm gonna make it very clear for you, too. Ya come anywhere near her, ya corner her, ya touch her and I'm gonna shoot ya in the fuckin' head. Don't even think about gettin' any ideas where she's concerned."

Tyreese didn't respond, he just kept looking at Daryl.

"In short," he continued. "Back. The. Fuck. Off."

Daryl glared at Tyreese, trying to gauge the other man's reaction.

"We understand each other?" he asked. A small smile spread across Tyreese's lips.

"Yeah," he said. "I get it. You wake her up then."

He walked around Daryl and made his way to the kitchen door.

"One thing, though," Tyreese said and Daryl glanced over his shoulder. "I see you guys got something there and I ain't gonna interefere with that. But I also get the feeling you're not the kinda guy who goes all out where Carol's concerned. So I'll leave it be. For now. But you keep hoverin' and not doing anything else and I'm gonna give it a shot. Cause that's a great woman."

Tyreese paused, but Daryl didn't answer.

"Glad we understand each other," Tyreese said, before vanishing into the kitchen.

That motherfucker.

* * *

When the time came to split into groups Daryl made it known in no uncertain terms that he was taking Carol along with him, no matter what work he was going to do. There was no fucking way he'd let her go off with someone else, especially if Tyreese could be in that group. Luckily no one seemed to want to argue with him and Carol just shot him a confused look when he snapped at them.

Rick assigned them to go searching for a water source nearby and Daryl was glad for it, because it meant he could get away from this ever growing group of people. Sure he liked them – most of them – but at heart he was still more of a loner and he was quickly overwhelmed with so many people. He needed his quiet and there was no one he'd rather share that with than Carol.

But as it happened Carol didn't really seem to be into the quiet part that day. As they made their way through the woods, both loosely clutching their weapons, she spoke.

"How's your brother doing?" she asked. Daryl looked at her in surprise, not having expected the question.

"What d'you mean?" he wanted to know.

"Well, this can't be easy for him, with all of us," Carol said, shrugging. "I don't see him much, he wanders of more than you did in the beginning."

She snorted at the dark look Daryl shot her.

"You seriously worryin' 'bout Merle?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Maybe a little," Carol sighed. "Can't help it. And I don't want him to go anywhere."

"Why?" Daryl asked sharply. He just couldn't contain these sudden bursts of jealousy and he knew Carol had noticed.

"Because," she said, rolling her eyes at him. "he's your brother and I'm sure you like having him around, don't you?"

Daryl grunted in response and Carol shook her head at him, a small smile on her lips.

"And also," she continued. "He sure is useful. Having a guy like Merle in the group makes all the work easier. And safer."

"Guess so," Daryl said grudgingly.

"I just hope that at some point we can all get along more than we do now," Carol said.

"Merle did more or less try to kill Glenn," Daryl pointed out.

"Yeah, that doesn't really help the situation," Carol said darkly. "And of course there's no way Merle's gonna even try to apologize for that."

"What good would that do?" Daryl snorted, his eyes searching their surroundings. "It ain't like he broke a fuckin' toy or somethin'. He almost had the dude murdered by a walker and he beat the shit outta him. I'm pretty sure an 'I'm sorry' don't cut it."

"Well it'd be a start!" Carol exclaimed, sounding frustrated. "Because the way it is now sucks. It's not about everyone getting along and sunshine and rainbows and all that crap you think I'm talking about."

"So what is it about then?" Daryl asked.

"What if we get get caught in a herd of walkers?" Carol asked. "Or the Governor manages to catch up to us? You think if one of us got into a bad situation Merle would risk his life to save them? Or any of us would risk their life to save him? No way. The only reason we've managed to get this far is because we stick together and we care about each other. The way it is right now, there's way more danger of something going wrong."

Daryl didn't respond immediately. Carol had a point. A good one, too.

"Ain't like we can do anythin' 'bout it," he finally mumbled.

"That's the spirit," Carol said sarcastically. "Merle should just get over himself and stop being so proud. He should apologize and stop insulting everyone and eventually Glenn would come around."

"Yeah and then we'll all have a big party and hug each other," Daryl said.

"Fuck off," Carol snorted and Daryl was taken aback. Carol never swore like that. "I know that sounds like a cookie cutter version, but right now it looks like the only valid idea. Tell me when you come up with something better."

She looked expectantly at Daryl who just shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Carol said smugly. "And anyway, it's not just them. The new group, too. We have to work something out there. They're really guarded, we have to try to make them feel more included. I'm sure we'll get there; Tyreese is already doing a great job trying to get them more involved. He's been amazing."

Daryl didn't answer. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that? He kept his eyes on the trees in front of him.

"Yeah," Carol continued conversationally. "He's a really nice guy. Good looking, too. Probably a demon in bed."

Daryl tripped over his own feet. Catching himself, he whirled round to stare at Carol, who was grinning at him.

"The fuck d'you just say?" he exclaimed.

"Relax," Carol laughed. "Just messing with you."

"You think that's fuckin' funny?" Daryl asked angrily.

"I think it's hilarious," Carol said, her eyes twinkling.

"It fuckin' ain't," Daryl growled and stalked away.

"Oh come on!" Carol yelled, trying to catch up with him. "Seriously? You're gonna act all churlish?"

Daryl increased his speed to stop her from reaching him, but he made sure he could still hear her steps.

"You know," she called. "I feel like I should be offended, not you. Honestly, the way you treat the guy you'd think he'd killed a relative. And the way you watch me like a hawk every time he's around? What do you think's gonna happen? I'm gonna screw him when you're not looking? I think it just shows that you don't trust me."

Her voice had grown breathless, but Daryl refused to slow down.

"Daryl!" she yelled and breaking into a run she finally caught up, grabbing onto his arm.

He came to a halt and she stepped in front of him.

"I think I've made it pretty clear," she said, her voice low. "that Tyreese isn't the one I care for."

Daryl was pretty sure it wasn't just the jog that made his heart beat this fast, as he took in her words. They were standing closely together, both of them breathing heavily. He couldn't tear his eyes from her pink cheeks and her wide eyes. It was so easy. He didn't have to do much. Just lean down and kiss her. She'd practically told him she wanted him, hadn't she? So why the fuck was he so frozen to the spot?

He managed to move forward an inch, when Carol blinked.

"D'you hear that?" she breathed.

"What?" Daryl asked dumbly, because right now all he could hear was his own raging heartbeat.

"Sounds like water," Carol said, looking to her left.

Daryl shook his head, trying to get his shit together. He strained his ears. Carol was right.

"It's comin' from here," he said, taking her arm and pulling her in the direction the sound was coming from.

"Is that a river?" Carol asked.

"Nah," Daryl answered, making his way through the trees. "Sounds more like a stream or somethin'."

He was half right. After a couple of moments they came onto a large clearing. A brook was snaking through the grass in front of their feet. It wound itself around a couple of trees before finally dropping off into a little lake at the end of the clearing.

"Wow," Carol breathed and before Daryl could respond she'd walked downstream.

"Would you wait so I can make sure there ain't no walkers around?" Daryl hissed, looking around feverishly.

"You got my back," Carol called across her shoulder before continuing towards the edge of the lake.

Daryl growled and, with his crossbow raised, he followed her, scanning the surrounding trees closely.

Finally satisfied that no one was about, he turned towards Carol and his heart skipped a beat.

"The fuck are you doin'?" he asked incredulously.

"Getting undressed," she said, pulling her shirt over her head.

"Why?" Daryl asked.

"Because we haven't had a chance to take a bath in decades and there is no way I'm not taking this opportunity."

Carol had her back to him as she slid her jeans down her hips. Then she turned around to look at Daryl, only wearing underwear. It took all of Daryl's concentration to keep his gaze on her face.

"I'm going to go in naked," Carol said brightly.

Without an answer Daryl turned around.

"You don't have to do that," Carol said, sounding amused.

"Yes, I do," Daryl sighed and he heard her giggle.

For a few moments it was silent, but then he heard Carol walking into the water.

"Holy shit, that's cold!" she exclaimed and he heard more splashing. "You can turn round now, I'm in."

Uncertain, Daryl slowly turned around. Carol's clothes were lying a few feet away from the water's edge and she had swum out into the middle of the pool. He was grateful the water was dark, he was pretty sure seeing Carol naked would have destroyed all his intentions of being a gentleman about this.

Carol dove under the surface, coming up a few feet away, rubing the water out of her eyes.

"God, this is amazing," she called, then looked at him expectantly. "You coming in or what?"

"Huh?" Daryl asked. "No way."

"Daryl," Carol said sternly. "Not to insult you or anything, but you probably need a bath more than I do."

"I'll come back to take one later," Daryl answered.

"Are you kidding me?" Carol asked, laughing in disbelief. "Just come on in! I swear I'll keep at least a five feet distance."

"No way," Daryl said, shaking his head.

"You're weird," Carol called, grinning.

Maybe he was. But there was no way he was going in that water with her in there. He'd have to muster all of his energy to turn around when she got out of the water again. He'd focus on that.


	16. Baby Steps

**Guys, I am so incredibly sorry it's been such a long time. I really have not had a single second free to write anything other than exams and term papers. Luckily that's over now for a couple of weeks, so I'll be able to update regularly again. I am so sorry, I hope you haven't abandoned me! My wonderful, crazy, Caryl-loving followers, please leave me reviews if you're still out there! 3**

"You gonna come out or what?" Daryl yelled from the edge of the pond.

"You in a hurry?" Carol asked, the amusement clear in her voice.

She'd been in the water for about 15 minutes and granted, it was getting a little cold, but she didn't want to get out. It felt so good to finally be clean again. And instead of getting out, she'd rather Daryl would just get over himself and get _in_. But he had already established that there was no way that was happening. So instead, while she had been swimming, stretching her limbs, enjoying the water swirling around her skin, he had been standing next to her discarded clothes, looking thoroughly uncomfortable with the entire situation. Carol could almost see the debate going on in his head, whether not to just jump in, but chickening out at the last second. He had even taken a jerking step toward the water a couple of times, before halting again. Carol thought it was pretty hilarious.

"Your fingers'll already be all shriveled up!" he shouted.

"How would you know?" she asked. She raised a hand out of the water and wiggled her fingers at him. "If you come over here you'll see they're just fine."

Daryl growled something and Carol couldn't suppress a grin.

"Alright then," she said, slowly swimming towards him. "I'll get out."

Daryl whipped round so his back was towards her and Carol climbed out of the water, rolling her eyes.

"You know," she said as she walked towards her clothes. "I find your absolute avoidance to seeing me naked kind of insulting."

"You know that ain't it," Daryl muttered, as Carol pulled on her clothes.

For a second she hesitated. She could just walk up to him stark naked and see what would happen. Then she shook her head and pulled her shirt down her back. That kind of come on would probably freak Daryl out to no end. With him, it had to be baby steps.

"Really?" she asked as she walked up to him, jabbing at his shoulder. "Then what is it?"

Daryl turned around carefully, evidently making sure that she was indeed dressed. He stared at her glistening skin and a drop of water that was running down her collarbone and disappeared under her top. Carol was taken aback. He had never checked her out this blatantly before.

His eyes snapped up towards her face and she thought they looked several shades darker, as he took a step towards her. They were now standing only inches apart, she could feel the heat coming off his body and her heart hammered in her chest.

"Cause," Daryl muttered, his eyes boring into hers. "once I get you outta your clothes, there ain't no way I'll let you put 'em back on again."

Carol felt a rush of air leaving her lips, but she couldn't hear it over the blood thundering in her ears. Her heart felt like it would actually burst out of her chest.

There was a flash in Daryl's eyes and Carol could tell he'd been surprised by his own words. He had evidently not really decided to say them out loud.

"Huh," Carol whispered, not really able to think of a more eloquent response.

They stood there looking at each other, Carol willing Daryl to make a move. It took her a surprisingly large amount of self-control to not just attack him, but she knew that Daryl had to make this decision without feeling too pressured. So Carol tried to look as innocent as possible, trying hard to not imagine all the stuff they could do so far away from all the others.

And then, suddenly, Daryl blinked and his gaze became guarded again, as he took a step back.

"We should get goin'," he said, all of a sudden trying not to look at her. "Tell the others we found water."

"Okay," Carol said, keeping the disappointment and frustration out of her voice. There was no point in being impatient or letting him see it.

In silence she pulled on her shoes and they walked along the stream into the direction they had come from. After a few seconds Carol stole a quick sideways look at Daryl. Normally there was no way to see what he was thinking, he was always so careful not let anything show. But now that he thought no one was watching him, Carol could see the obvious anger on his face.

Anger at whom though? At himself for chickening out or at her for being so brazen? It made Carol uneasy to think that maybe she had teased him a little too much. Sure, she didn't normally flirt this much with him, but she had been under the impression that somehow they had made a large step in their relationship. She had after all more or less told him she liked him, hadn't she? And he had not run away. But what if she'd misunderstood?

She stole another glance in his direction. His eyes were glued to the ground in front of him as they walked, his brow furrowed.

Carol swallowed as the worry started to overtake her. If she had overstepped then he would surely retreat behind his shell again. She wasn't sure she could take any more snide and hurtful remarks from him, even though she knew he didn't really mean them.

But maybe… maybe Daryl wasn't mad at her. Maybe he was angry at himself for not taking the chance. Carol knew he dealt with such internal battles on a daily basis, almost always deciding not to take chances on his fellow people, but rather playing his cards close to his chest, even though it seemed to irk him.

Carol wished she could see the answer written clearly on his face. She had no idea how to react. The silence between them already felt awkward to her. She had never thought anything could be uncomfortable between them, they were both too no-nonsense for that. But all of a sudden a little thing like a _moment_ came along and made them act like awkward teenagers. Carol had to suppress a snort at the thought. This was total bullshit. This wasn't supposed to be weird and it didn't have to be. This was her and Daryl after all.

And there was no way she would let all the progress they had made be ruined by such a ridiculous thing. And seeing as she was probably the more grown up of the two, it was up to her to make sure that this wouldn't become an issue.

Without really thinking about what she was doing, Carol stretched out her arm and took Daryl's hand. She expected him to jerk back, making sure he wouldn't by gripping his hand a lot harder than she normally would have.

She looked up at him, seeing the clear surprise at her action across his face, as he looked down at their joined hands. The last time they had done this was less than twelve hours ago, but this felt different. Somehow it felt more intimate because she had done it on impulse.

Carol felt extremely nervous as she tried to make out Daryl's expression. He looked up at her and trying to convey what she was thinking without actually speaking a word, she smiled at him.

Daryl's demeanor remained unreadable for another moment, before a small smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. Carol felt him gripping her hand and she loosened her grasp, sure that he wouldn't let go, as the anger disappeared entirely from Daryl's face.

Not a word passed between them as they walked through the woods, hands entwined.

Baby steps.


	17. Pacify

**Hey guys, new chapter! **

**Frankly, I'm not sure I like it, Daryl's behavior's maybe slightly out of character. But I'm growing sooo frustrated with the fact that the show is giving us NOTHING on the Caryl front, I think this might be my version of venting ^^**

**It's not just me though, right? Surely everyone is pissed with the fact that we're going to have to wait at _least_ another season for the two to get anywhere! Why do they torture us, why?!**

Lying to herself would not do her much good. The truth was, Carol was frustrated. Frustrated, that every step Daryl and she seemed to take forwards seemed so tiny and insignificant. And it always took ages. One step forward, two steps backward; that was the main problem.

If they only managed baby steps, that was fine. But then something happened, Daryl would get all cagy and all the progress they seemed to have made vanished and they would be back at square one.

If it had been anyone else, Carol would not have had this much patience. It was not like she wanted to immediately get all cuddly and profess her undying love, no way. But the small things that encouraged her to keep trying, those she wished, would just stay once they were established. But alas, this was not just anyone, was it? It was Daryl, and if anyone on this planet was more fucked up than she was, it was him. Of course it would be nice if he could just snap out of his manifold issues, but Carol knew that hidden behind that stony façade lay a mountain of emotional baggage and it would take a _lot_ of time to wade through it all.

So when Daryl immediately let go off her hand when the house came into view, Carol bit her lip to keep herself from making an exasperated comment. Baby steps, she reminded herself.

Most of the others were spread around the yard in front of the house. While some seemed engrossed in work, others chose to lie on the grass, soaking up the sun. Glenn, who was cleaning his gun, shot Merle contemptuous looks, while the latter was lying spread eagled on the ground, looking like he had fallen asleep.

"You guys find anything?" Maggie asked, as they approached. She was cradling Judith in her arms and the baby looked up curiously as Carol bent over her.

"Yeah," Carol answered, gesturing in the direction they had come from. "There's a small river and a pond about twenty minutes from here. The water looks pretty clean. I had a bath. I forgot how awesome being clean felt."

"God, I can't wait to feel clean," Maggie sighed, smiling up at her.

"It is pretty awesome," Carol agreed, as Judith mewled.

"I think I may have lost her pacifier," Maggie grimaced, looking down at the baby. "I thought she had in her mouth when we came out, but I can't find it anywhere."

"That's ok," Carol said. "We took a whole bunch from a store on the last run. I think they're upstairs in Rick and Carl's room."

"I'll get one," Maggie said and made to get up, but Carol shook her head.

"I'll do it," she said. "I keep a sort of mental inventory of all our baby stuff. Hopefully this way I'll manage to remember it."

"Thanks!" Maggie called out as Carol walked towards the front door. She felt Daryl's eyes follow her and quickly glanced back at him. He gave her a quick smile and Carol winked at him before she disappeared inside.

She did not mind that most of what passed between them was private. She did not feel the need to parade it around in front of everybody else, she wasn't a teenager after all. But the fact that he had let go off her hand so quickly irked her. She knew it was probably more about not wanting to hear any comments than actually being embarrassed, but it made her feel a stab of insecurity all the same. Maybe next time he could find it within himself to at least wait until they were halfway to the house before jerking back like he'd been burned.

Carol snorted at the thought as she climbed the stairs to the upper floor. The sun was shining brightly and the upstairs landing felt stuffy and hot. The wooden boards under her feet creaked a little as she walked towards the last door on the corridor.

Which bag had they stuffed the box with the pacifiers again? She couldn't quite remember. Well, she'd just have to rummage around in all the bags she could find and one would surely turn up.

Carol reached out and opened the door. There were two people in there. It took Carol three full seconds to comprehend who they were and what they were doing.

Carl and Beth were sitting on the bed. Kissing. Well, they had been kissing, until they realized somebody had come in, then they almost jumped apart.

"Umh…" Carl said, turning bright red and looking slightly dumbfounded.

It wasn't like Carol was really surprised. She had noticed the way the two had been looking at each other lately and this had probably been inevitable

She knew that the nice thing to do here was to apologize, get the hell out and never talk about it. But this wasn't a time to be nice. So instead, she stood rooted to the spot, staring at both of them, refusing to move even an inch. She ignored the almost pleading look Beth was giving her and simply raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't there something you should be helping with?" she asked.

"Right, yeah," Carl mumbled and he scrambled off the bed. He glanced back at Beth for the fraction of a second before he squeezed past Carol. They could hear him bounding down the stairs like his life depended on it, but Carol's eyes were resting on Beth.

The girl tried to look everywhere except in Carol's direction, but after a moment and a resigned sigh she glanced up with a little defiance.

"What?" she asked, slightly surly.

Carol quietly closed the door behind her and walked over. She sat down on the bed next to Beth.

"Beth-" she began, but she was interrupted.

"Look," Beth said. "I know what you're gonna say now. Don't. You're not my mother."

"I'm not trying to be," Carol said. "I already play mother to Judith, that's about as much as I can handle."

"Then what?" Beth asked, sounding slightly suspicious.

"Beth," Carol sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Not only am I not really in any position to tell you what you can and can't do. I also think that this whole situation we're in? It makes all the rights and wrongs we used to know void. Those rules don't apply anymore, really."

She looked up at the girl, who stared back with wide eyes and Carol smiled at her.

"All I want to say," she continued. "is that you gotta be careful."

"What d'you mean?" Beth asked.

"Well… what do you think I mean?" Carol chuckled, as realization seemed to dawn on Beth.

"No way," Beth said, as she shook her head. "That's no issue. Jesus, Carol! He's 15!"

"So?" Carol asked, shrugging. "Like I said, it's different in this world. Everything's different."

"I am not gonna… sleep with him," Beth said, shaking her head violently.

"Maybe not now," Carol said, still grinning. "But maybe somewhere down the road, when he's older."

"God," Beth said, looking seriously uncomfortable. "I thought you were gonna say something about messing with group dynamics or something."

"I didn't think I had to," Carol said. "You're smart enough to figure that out on your own. As you evidently have."

"Yeah," Beth said. Silence fell between the two.

"Well," Carol finally said, getting up. "I'm glad we had this talk."

"I'm not," Beth murmured and they grinned at each other. "I will. Be careful, I mean."

"Good," Carol said. "Now come on, we should go downstairs, see what work needs to be done."

They made their way to the door.

"Shoot!" Carol exclaimed, stopping. "I'm supposed to get a pacifier for Judith."

"You want me to wait?" Beth asked, but Carol shook her head.

"Nah, you go on ahead, I'll be down in a minute."

Beth left and Carol started searching the bags that were strewn across the room.

She found clothes, knives, toothbrushes, tools. But the bag with the baby stuff seemed to have hidden itself. Typical, really.

"Come on," she grumbled, rummaging around in one of Rick's bags. "Where are you?"

It had to be somewhere. There was no way they had left it behind, Carol had double checked. The baby stuff was crucial.

"Need help?" a voice said right behind her. Carol jumped to her feet and whirled around, her heart hammering.

"Jesus Christ!" she exclaimed. "You scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry," Daryl said, sounding anything but.

"You want me to have a heart attack?" she said, trying to calm herself.

"Relax," Daryl said, looking around the room. "You ain't _that_ old."

"Fuck you, Daryl. Seriously. Fuck. You." Carol said, glaring at him, as a small smile appeared on his lips.

"Can't find a pacifier, huh?" he asked.

"No," Carol said through clenched teeth, still staring daggers at him. "Can't find any of the baby stuff."

"I'll help ya," Daryl said, walking over towards the other side of the bed,

"Thanks, but no thanks," Carol said coolly. "I can do it myself. Don't you have something better to do? Putting your brother on a leash maybe or being a prick?"

There was utter silence. Carol had been bending over a bag and now did her damndest to not look up at him. She shouldn't have said it. She should have just let it go. It wasn't worth it. But the dig about her age irked her. It had never really been an issue between them that she was a couple of years older. Sure, it was something that from time to time gnawed at her, but she had never gotten any signals from him that he cared about it.

She continued to loudly rummage around in the bag, fully aware that Daryl had not moved an inch. Carol mentally prepared herself for a shitstorm. He would storm out and not speak to her for ages, and when she apologized he'd be frosty and retreat.

"I'm sorry," Daryl said suddenly.

She was so taken aback she stilled her hands and looked up at him. He looked sheepish as he glanced at her.

"Huh?" she said.

"I didn't mean nothin' by it," he said.

Carol stared at him, not quite knowing how to react. Had he just apologized after she had called him a prick?

"I'm sorry," he repeated, seemingly worried at her lack of a response.

Carol shook her head and sighed. She got up and sat down at the edge of the bed.

"I'm sorry," she said. "That was mean. I shouldn't have said that. You're not a prick."

Daryl chuckled as he shuffled over and sat down next to her.

"I am sometimes," he said and Carol had to smile.

"Maybe sometimes," she agreed and he grinned at her.

"So your age, huh?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't know that was a touchy subject."

"Yeah, well…" Carol said, feeling uneasy. Daryl was looking at her with a curious expression.

"Y'know I don't give a shit about any of that, right?" he finally said. "Age ain't nothin' but a number. The fuck does it matter?"

Carol smiled at him, feeling slightly relieved. Sometimes it was a good thing that Daryl didn't beat around the bush and just bluntly said what he thought.

"'sides," he continued slyly. "don't matter how old you are. You're smokin'."

Carol burst out laughing, fully expecting Daryl to join her. When she looked at him, her laugh stuck in her throat. He looked entirely serious, his eyes fixed on her, looking several shades darker. Woah. Where was this coming from?

"We should look for that pacifier," she said, her voice nothing more than a whisper.

"They're downstairs," Daryl said, his voice low.

"Huh?" Carol said, her heart resuming to hammer against her chest. It felt like the temperature in the room had gone up about a 100 degrees. All of a sudden she realized they were completely alone on the house. In a room. On a bed. Only a couple of inches apart.

"Found the bag in the kitchen," Daryl continued, never averting his gaze.

"Why didn't you say so?" Carol asked, slightly breathless.

"It's a good excuse to get you alone in here," Daryl answered, shrugging.

What the fuck was happening all of a sudden? Carol had been absolutely convinced that it would take an eternity for them to get anywhere. Never in a million years had she expected Daryl to be so forward, but here he was, all dark eyes and sexy voice, telling her she was hot. Baby steps? As if. They were halfway to doing it on Rick and Carl's bed.

Carl. Carl and Beth. Carol blinked, snapping out.

"I walked in on Carl and Beth," she blurted.

"What?" Daryl said, drawing back.

"When I came in, they were on the bed," Carol said.

"The fuck?" Daryl said, jumping up, looking at where he had been sitting with slight disgust.

"They weren't doing anything?" Carol said. "Just kissing."

Daryl stared down at her with a somewhat disbelieving look on his face.

"And you bring that up _now_?" he asked.

"Sorry," Carol said. "I just remembered."

"Huh," Daryl said, crossing his arms. "Feels kinda like an insult."

"It's not," Carol said, shaking her head. "There's nothing to insult. _Believe_ me."

She looked pointedly at him and he grinned slightly, looking a little more pleased with himself.

"But," Carol said, trying not to get drawn in. "the two of them, it could be an issue. I talked to Beth and she knows it. I'm not so sure about Carl."

"So tell Rick," Daryl shrugged.

"No," Carol said. "That's not my place. And I'm pretty sure Rick wouldn't be all that happy about it."

"Then what?" Daryl asked.

"You should talk to him," Carol answered.

"Me?" Daryl raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so. Ain't my job."

"It's not a job," Carol said, rolling her eyes. "You're not supposed to have "The Talk" with him."

"Yeah, that'll be the day," Daryl snorted.

"Just, "Carol began, gesturing towards the door. "Tell him to be careful and… I don't know, stuff like that I guess."

"And why the fuck would I do that?" Daryl asked.

"Because I asked you to," Carol said, looking up at him imploringly. Daryl groaned, rubbing his eyes.

"Fuck," he growled. "You fuckin' owe me for this."

"Good," Carol said slyly, smiling at him and Daryl froze.

Suddenly the door banged open, making both of them jump.

"Lunch's ready," Glenn said. "You guys coming?"

"Yeah," Carol said, trying not to let her frustration show.

Apparently it wasn't only going to be Daryl and her who decided at what pace they were going to move forward.


	18. Let's Not

**I only have a little chapter for you guys today, still no real angst, but believe me guy, I will have you angsting away in no time ;)**

**I'm still reeling from last night's season finale. I don't wanna spoil any of you who haven't watched it yet, so if you don't want to know anything, do NOT read my notes at the bottom!**

**Also, you wonderful, super awesome, genius 84 people who follow this story, please be so kind and leave reviews, they make me so very happy :)**

Two minutes. Just two fuckin' minutes of peace and quiet. Was that really too much to ask? Sure seemed like it.

They'd been at the house for one night, they'd found water, they had enough food and they hadn't seen a walker in over 20 hours. Life could've been perfect, all things considered. But no, 'course it couldn't be. Because someone always had to fuck somethin' up, didn't they? And more often than not, that fuck up would involve a particular person.

Daryl and Carol had been sitting on the wooden floor in the living room, eating tinned peaches for dinner. And then the shouting started outside.

"Fuck's that?" Daryl growled as he got to his feet, Carol close behind him.

They darted out of the front door into the yard, where the sun was just about to set. Seemingly everyone was gathered outside, standing in a circle around Glenn and Merle. 'Course it was gonna be Merle.

"What's going on?" Carol asked, coming up next to Daryl.

"I've had it!" Glenn shouted, his eyes locked on the older Dixon, who glared back.

"What happened?" Daryl asked, watching his brother's every move. Merle could be real unpredictable if he wanted to be.

"Nothin' fuckin' happened," Merle snarled. "Glenn here's just itchin' to bitch about somethin'!"

"Fuck you, Merle!" Glenn yelled, taking a step toward the man.

"Easy now," Rick said loudly, taking a step toward them.

"You're lazy as shit!" Glenn exclaimed, pointing a finger right in Merle's face. "You just lie around all day and let everyone else do the work! And then you expect us to feed you?"

He looked around at the others, the fury evident on his face.

"This is bullshit," he said, looking at them. "We don't need him. He's a burden."

"He's not a burden," Carol said loudly. "We do need him. Our chances with him in this group are far better and you know it."

Daryl couldn't help but be surprised. He was sure that Glenn's accusation of Merle being a burden had resonated with Carol, but he was taken aback that she jumped to his brother's defense to quickly. By the looks of it so was Merle, who stared at Carol before glowering at Glenn again.

"I ain't lazy!" he fumed.

"Yeah?" Glenn yelled. "What've you been doing all day, then? Lying around on the grass, doing fuck all."

"Jesus Christ, you're a prick," Merle exclaimed. "Y'know what I did before that? I got up before all y'all and went huntin'. Game's out back, gutted 'n all. Then I went round the whole area 'n made sure there weren't no walkers around to surprise us. And I raided the cellar and got out all the weapons we could use. And _then_ I took a break. I just don't feel the need to make a big fuckin' deal, paradin' it around in front of y'all!"

They continued to glare at each other, everyone else nervously observing the situation. Every muscle in Daryl's body was tense and he was ready to pounce, should they decide to bash each other's heads in.

Merle let out an angry snarl and turned away from Glenn for a moment.

"This ain't even about that," he said, looking back. "You been lookin' for a reason to go off on me the whole time. You just want everybody's permission to beat the shit outta me, so you're tryin' to make me fuck up. But this is 'bout what happened in Woodbury. Don't try to deny it."

"I'm not," Glenn said, his eyes gleaming with anger. "You beat me up! You through a fucking walker in there to kill me!"

"You wouldn't tell me where my brother was!" Merle shouted. "The fuck did you expect me to do?"

"You let that son of a bitch put his hands all over Maggie," Glenn said. His voice had gone low and dangerous. Merle froze for a second, a muscle under his eye twitching.

"Didn't know he was gonna do that," he finally said, quietly.

"Yeah, right," Glenn snorted cruelly. "I bet you guys had a good time laughing about it. Probably planning to take turns-"

"Glenn!" Maggie exclaimed. Her arms were crossed tightly in front of her chest and she looked incredibly uncomfortable.

In the blink of an eye Merle was in Glenn's face, only inches separating them.

"I ain't ever put my hands on a woman that way," he hissed. "I'd never."

They glared at each other, but didn't speak.

"That's enough," Rick finally said and took a step towards them.

"Like you're any better!" Merle spat, rounding on the rest. "Treatin' me a like a fuckin' dog, only just toleratin' me."

"What did you expect?" Hershel said, his voice not unfriendly. "After everything that's happened? Did you think you would instantly be a real part of this group?"

"I ain't stupid," Merle snapped. "But y'all avoid me like a fuckin' leper! Got no problem eatin' what I catch huntin' or the other shit I do, but I don't get nothin' in return."

"You're still here, aren't you?" Carl said, his eyes just visible from under the rim of his hat.

"You expect me to be fuckin' grateful for that?" Merle barked. "That ain't no life. Workin' your ass of and bein' treated like shit everyday. Life's too fuckin' short for that in this world."

Nobody responded. Daryl could feel Carol's eyes on him and glanced over. She was shooting him a pointed look, as though she wanted him to do something, but he just shrugged. The fuck did he know about dealing with situations like these? He knew everything that Merle had said was true. He also knew that there was a real reason for it. This wasn't black or white. There was no wrong or right. Carol rolled her eyes at him before taking a step toward Merle.

"We're sorry," she said, sounding almost genuine.

"Speak for yourself," Glenn murmured, but Carol ignored him.

"You were a real asshole," she continued. "You deserved to be handcuffed to that rooftop and you know it. And what you did to Glenn, that won't just go away. But you saved my life, and Daryl's and Rick's back in Woodbury. And you've been doing your part out here."

She looked around at the others, as she continued: "If we wanna go on we _have_ to stick together. Won't always be easy and won't always be fun. But we have to."

"Maggie," she said and turned to the girl. "Did Merle ever touch you?"

"No," Maggie said and shook her head.

"Alright," Carol said and sighed. "We don't all have to be the best of friends, but we need to get along. What we have, us, here? Let's just not fuck it up."

She looked around at them, her eyes settling on Daryl, who couldn't help but grin a little at her.

Every time he thought he had her figured out, she went and shot all of that to shit by surprising him. How far she had come and the way she handled this situation made him so proud of her, it was almost ridiculous.

"Sounds like a plan to me," he said loudly. "Anyone got a problem with that?"

Nobody answer and Daryl grunted with satisfaction.

Carol was right. They shouldn't fuck this up. They couldn't.

**I can accept everything that happened in the last episode, even all the deaths.**

**But what I CANNOT accept is the fact that they're treating us Caryl lovers so cruelly! Just give us SOMETHING, would you?! Seriously, all we get is her helping him up off the ground (he can't do that by himself?!). Where's the tears, the consolation after Merle died, the emotions? Argh! It is seriously pissing me off. You guys with me on this?**


	19. Fog

**And voilá, another chapter. I've been in a writing flow all evening and I decided to put it to some nin-academic use. Hope you enjoy!**

**And you super awesome incredible sexy great amazing people who follow this story: please review! **

Glenn and Merle's squabble and Carol's resulting speech put the group in a weird mood. Everybody tried like hell to be nice to the others, nobody complained or whined all evening. It sure was a new experience. Felt kinda nice, nobody whining in Daryl's ear. Except for Judith. But she was allowed.

They had all sat around the living room, some of them talking, others engrossed in a fierce chess battle between Hershel and Michonne. Daryl had sat in his sleeping corner, observing them all. He was surprised at how easy the new people seemed to adapt to the group. Sure, there was still some awkwardness now and again, and he himself viewed them with some serious suspicion, but all in all, it was going pretty well.

More often than not his eyes rested on Carol. She was holding Judith in her arms, rocking from side to side gently, while talking to Andrea. Both women laughed heartily and Daryl felt greatful that Carol finally had a woman her own age to talk to again. Once or twice Carol caught him staring at her. A couple of weeks ago he would have probably looked away immediately, blushing furiously. But now he just smiled a little at her and she grinned back. She looked genuinely happy and that gave her a glow that Daryl found hard to tear himself away from. Had there ever been a woman that beautiful? He sure didn't know any. And what in the hell had he done to deserve someone like her?

That question was still running through his mind when they all went to bed. Lying there in the darkness, her body so close to his he could feel her breath on his cheek, he couldn't help but wonder if there hadn't been some huge mistake. There was no way this woman felt about him the same way he felt about her. Someone like him didn't deserve that.

"You okay?" she whispered, as though she had heard the doubts gnawing at him. She reached out and took his hand, holding it firmly. Daryl couldn't keep his heart from hammering against his chest at her touch.

"Yeah," he answered, his voice low.

"What's on your mind?" she inquired. Daryl sighed. If he decided not to tell her, she'd know he was lying. But if he told her… he didn't want her to feel obligated to say something to him that she didn't actually want to.

"Nothin'," he murmured.

"Yeah right," she muttered and he could hear her smile. He didn't respond, but he could feel her tensing up, as though she sensed that something was wrong.

"Ain't nothin'", he repeated, trying to reassure her.

"You know that I know that's bullshit, don't you?" she asked, her voice slightly steely.

"Yeah," Daryl said truthfully. He sighed, staring up into the darkness, Carol's hand still tightly wrapped around his.

"I just…" he began and broke off.

"What?" she demanded.

"You're awesome," he finally said. Carol snorted a laugh.

"Thanks for the compliment," she said and he could feel her grinning. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Nah," Daryl said, mentally kicking himself. He couldn't have thought of something better to say? Fucking idiot.

"So?" Carol wanted to know and he could just make out her eyes glittering in the moonlight.

"Well," he began, almost dreading her reaction. She was probably gonna be mad. "You're awesome."

"Yeah, we got that far," Carol said, the amusement evident in her voice. "And?"

"And… I ain't," Daryl said quietly.

Carol didn't respond for such a long time, Daryl thought she might have actually fallen asleep. Then she sighed and he could feel her scooting closer.

"Daryl," she whispered, her lips brushing against his cheek as she spoke. Daryl couldn't suppress a shudder at the sensation. "I know you have some serious issues. So do I. That's okay. It's probably why we understand each other as well as we do. And I know that some things aren't going to come naturally to you and that some things are going to be difficult, both for you and for me."

Her grip on his hand tightened, turning almost painful as her voice turned into an urgent hiss.

"But there is no way," she continued. "that I'll let you think that you're not good enough for me. Because that's ridiculous. Absolutely ludicrous. Whatever you may think of yourself, you're wrong. You're without a doubt the best person I have ever met, everyday is better because it has you in it. Next to Sofia you're the best thing that has ever happened to me. I need you to know that. You're the most important thing in this world to me and there is no way I will ever go anywhere or do anything without you."

Silence fell. Daryl tried to control his breath, his heart was still racing. Carol had said some nice things to him before, but he'd never expected anything like this.

"Too much?" she asked and he could hear the trepidation in her voice.

"No," he breathed and he could feel her relax against his side.

"Good," she said softly, laying her head down right next to his. "We should get some sleep."

"Yeah," Daryl said, his eyes wide open. How the hell was he supposed to go to sleep after that?

But it didn't take long for his eyelids to grow heavy and he could feel himself sliding into unconsciousness, when Carol spoke again, her own voice heavy with sleep.

"And Daryl?"

"Yeah?"

"You're awesome, too."

Daryl grinned and gave her hand a squeeze before drifting off.

* * *

He wasn't sure what exactly woke him. Maybe it was Hershel, snoring especially loudly. Maybe it was the moon shining into his face through the window. Or maybe it was the shouting that came from outside.

As his eyes opened, the living room door flew open and Axel dashed inside. Everyone else seemed to jerk awake immediately.

"Herd!" Axel bellowed, looking at them in panic. "Comin' this way!"

Before he could say anything else, everybody jumped to their feet, dragging on their boots.

"How far away?" Daryl asked, his crossbow already in his hands.

"Just out of the woods," Axel grimaced, trying to catch his breath.

"What?" Merle barked, glaring at Axel. "You didn't see 'em sooner?"

"No," Axel said, shaking his head. "Fog outside, can't see shit."

"Let's go!" Maggie exclaimed.

Carol shot Daryl a worried look and he tried to keep his face void of expression.

This was bad, this was really bad. They'd been completely surprised. Nothing was packed, nobody was ready and the walkers were so close already.

At that moment Rick barreled in, looking around at them.

"No time to get everything together," he said. "Grab whatever you can and get into the cars. There's no way we can take 'em on. We have to go _now_!"

"You got your gun?" Daryl asked Carol as everyone scrambled around for their things.

"Yeah," she breathed as she stuffed her sleeping back under her arm.

Daryl grabbed his things and grabbing Carol by her upper arm, they dashed through the corridor.

"Maybe we can get out before they're here," Carol said as they flew out of the front door.

Axel was right. You almost couldn't see anything. Thick fog had settled across the yard, obscuring the trees. But Daryl could hear them groaning. And he could just make out some shapes moving towards them. If they all got out of there in time it would be a fucking miracle.

"Come on," he said, wrenching open the door of the SUV and they stuffed their belongings in blindly, before rushing back into the house to retrieve as much as possible.

It was complete chaos. Everybody was running around, trying to grab stuff, crashing into each other, and with each moment the walkers came closer.

"Get a fuckin' move on!" Merle bellowed, hurrying past Daryl, dragging blankets behind him out of the door.

"All the food!" Carol yelped, trying to get into the kitchen.

Daryl heard a groan and his head whipped round. He could make out the first walkers coming into view, they were mere yards away. He grabbed Carol by the wrist and shook his head.

"No time, we gotta go."

"Everybody out!" Rick bellowed, thundering down the stairs. They dashed outside, where Tyreese and Michonne were already busy fighting off the first walkers.

"Who has Judith?" Carol yelled, looking around wildly.

"Beth's got her!" Merle shouted as he rammed the knife on his hand through a walker's skull.

"Did you get her things?" Carol asked Rick, who shook his head.

"No time," he said, attacking the nearest walker.

Carol turned around on the spot, heading back into the house. Daryl wrenched her back.

"The fuck you doin'?" he bellowed.

"We need her stuff!" Carol exclaimed. "She's a baby, Daryl, those things are vital. We could get into some serious trouble without it!"

"I'll get it," Daryl said quickly, but Carol shook her head.

"You're more use here, just let me go, I'll be right back."

Daryl nodded and she dashed into the house. He whirled around, aiming his crossbow at a walker that was sneaking up on Maggie.

It seemed to take Carol all of five seconds to get the things before she burst out of the door, towards the cars.

"Got it!" she bellowed.

"Let's go!" Rick roared.

More and more walkers were spreading out across the yard, coming towards them. They had to get out now or they wouldn't make it.

"Just get into the cars!" Rick shouted, wrenching open the door to the truck.

Daryl looked around wildly to make sure Carol got into a car. He could just make her out near the SUV, ramming her knife into a walker's rotting eye.

Then he heard a scream and looking to his right he saw the girl Sasha loosing her footing. She fell onto the ground and two walkers immediately descended upon her.

Daryl ran over, shooting an arrow straight into one of the walker's heads and dragging the other one off, burying an arrow in its head with his hand.

"You ok?" he asked, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up swiftly.

"Yeah," she said, her breath shaky. "Thanks."

"Let's go," Daryl said, as the walkers surrounded them.

They dashed towards the truck, where Carl was holding open the door for them.

"Come on!" he yelled and they both jumped in, Daryl slamming the door shut behind him.

Rick put his foot down and they flew out of there. Daryl turned back, seeing the other vehicles close behind him.

He leaned back, closing his eyes for a second. That had been close. Way to fucking close.

"Holy shit," Sasha said after a couple of moments.

"Yeah," Daryl agreed.

They didn't say anything else, driving on as fast as they could, trying to make out the road in the darkness.

They drove for what felt like ages before Rick sighed, rubbing his face.

"We should pull over," he said. "Think about where we're heading."

"Let's do it," Daryl muttered, nodding once.

Rick slowed down the car and pulled over, coming to a stop. He looked around for a moment, before he opened the car door and got out.

Daryl followed, waiting for Sasha to get out before he shut the car door again, as quietly as possible. No noise under any circumstances.

Maggie and Glenn got out of the SUV and Daryl could make out Tyreese getting out behind them, as Sasha rushed forward to meet her brother.

"Where are we headed?" Glenn asked, as they all convened in front of the SUV.

"Not sure," Rick sighed, the frustration evident on his face. "Don't have a map, do we? I think our best guess is to just keep going for another hour or two, see what we find. Then pull over, get some sleep maybe."

"Sounds good," Maggie said, nodding.

Daryl looked over the heads of the people, gathering at the hood of the car. He frowned.

"Carol still in the car?" he asked Maggie.

"Huh?" she said, looking confused.

"Did Carol stay in the car?" Daryl repeated.

"She isn't with us," Glenn said, sounding surprised. "I thought she was up front with you."

"No," Daryl said, feeling his insides churning. "Saw her next to the SUV, figured she'd get in there."

"She's in your car then?" Maggie asked, looking at Tyreese.

"No," Tyreese said, shaking his head.

"What?" Daryl asked, his skin growing ice cold.

"She didn't get into our car," Tyreese said.

There was silence for one horrible moment.

"You fuckin' tellin' me," Daryl said, his voice shaking. "That Carol ain't here?"

"That's impossible," Rick said, decidedly shaking his head.

Daryl ignored him, running towards the SUV. He wrenched open a door, looking inside. Empty. He raced over to the car at the back. Empty again.

Everything went blank. He felt like his breathing had halted in his heart stopped beating as fear started oozing into every inch of his body and a feeling of immense dread settled in the pit of his stomach.

Carol was gone.

**You guys want angst? You got angst.**


	20. Promise

**I had actually planned on stringing you guys along for a couple of days without posting, but it turns out I can't be that evil ;)**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, it's always so nice to hear what you have to say. Just keep it on comin', guys! :D**

**Also, I wanted to point this out for ages, but kind of always forgot: this story is coming to an end. Not because I don't enjoy writing it - I do very much, especially for you awesome nerds - but it's just time. It'll be two more chapters after this. Hopefully, I'll be able to make them especially brilliant for all of you :)**

_You lost her._

_ You lost her. It's your fault. Only your fault. You didn't turn around, you didn't make sure. And now she's dead. Because you had to go save someone who was nobody. It's your fault. All your fault._

Daryl stood rooted to the spot. He didn't know how long he hadn't moved, but it felt like an eternity. He had thought about something like this happening almost every day, the chances of it happening had always been pretty high, considering what world they lived in. He'd always imagined that his heart would be racing, his palms sweating and that he wouldn't be able to stand still for even a second.

But it was nothing like that now. Instead, he found he couldn't move a single inch, his feet seemed to have grown rooted into the soil. Instead of sweating, his skin had grown ice cold and his hands were completely steady. And his heart wasn't racing. He couldn't even feel it beating. He didn't have a heart now. Not anymore.

"Daryl," a voice behind him said tentatively, momentarily tearing him out of his thoughts. Maggie approached him, he could see she was nervous.

"Daryl?" she repeated when he didn't turn to fully look at her.

"We're goin' back," he muttered quietly.

"What?" Maggie asked, leaning in closer.

"We're goin' back. Right now," he breathed, turning on the spot and making his way back over to the group, leaving Maggie behind.

Without so much as a glance in the other's direction, he shouldered his crossbow and leaning into the truck, he retrieved a rifle. While he was making sure his knife was still safely attached at his waist, he could feel someone come up next to him. Glancing up quickly he saw that it was Merle. His brother didn't say a word, nor did he look at him. Instead he just started slinging weapons over his arms.

To anyone who didn't understand their relationship, Daryl thought that this would explain everything. Merle knew that going back would almost certainly be a death sentence; it wasn't smart, it wasn't thought through, it wasn't rational. But that didn't matter. Without arguing even for a second, his brother was going to join him in this, because that's what they did. Daryl halted for a second, almost opening his mouth to say something.

"Save it," Merle muttered, before Daryl could speak a word.

Daryl nodded once, before they both stepped away from the car. He looked at the group, all of whom were looking at him.

"We leavin' or what?" Daryl said sharply, his eyes glued to Rick.

"Daryl..." Rick began, in a voice that confirmed exactly what Daryl had expected.

"Don't you dare," Daryl growled and he was in Rick's face before the man had time to flinch. "Don't you _dare_ even think 'bout leavin' her behind."

"We can't go back," Rick said, shaking his head. "It'd be suicide."

Daryl stared at Rick, who looked utterly miserable. They both knew that this was a moment that could tear them apart. Daryl took a step closer, so they were mere inches apart.

"You do this," Daryl said, his voice so low it was hard to hear. "You do this and you … abandon her … then I ain't comin' with you no more."

"Daryl-" Rick interjected.

"I mean it," Daryl continued. "You don't come back with me now, I'm gone."

Rick stared at him and Daryl refused to blink. He could see how agitated Rick was, but he didn't care.

"That a promise?" Rick asked.

"It is," Daryl answered seriously.

"You'd risk all of us," Rick said, motioning at the others. "You'd risk everyone?"

"Yeah," Daryl said without hesitation, no doubt about it in his mind.

"Even Judith?" Rick wanted to know and Daryl snarled in anger.

"Don't even," he growled. "Don't fuckin' try to guilt me into changin' my mind. Judith wouldn't even be alive right now if it weren't for Carol. So don't you fuckin' try to throw that in my face!"

"Daryl," Hershel said, stepping forward. "Not all of us can defend ourselves, we can't all just go-"

"I don't fuckin' care!" Daryl bellowed, no longer caring about being quiet. "I don't give a shit about what y'all can and can't do! We're goin' back! Right fuckin' now!"

"Would y'all stop wastin' fuckin' time?" Merle barked, glaring at them. "We gotta go!"

"Okay," Glenn said, stepping forward. "I'm coming with you. So's Maggie, right?" he said, turning to look at her.

"Yes," Maggie said, nodding.

"I'll come," Tyreese said.

"So am I," Andrea said.

"Me, too," Sasha said, looking up at Daryl with watery eyes. "It was my fault. If I hadn't fallen…"

"You're not coming," Tyreese said loudly.

"I am!" Sasha said, glaring at her brother.

"He's right," Daryl interrupted, before either of them could say anything else. "You ain't comin' along. Don't have the time to save your ass, won't do it again."

"Daryl!" Rick said, looking alarmed, but Daryl just shot him a dark look, as Sasha turned red and looked at the ground, visibly ashamed.

"Okay," Glenn said. "So Daryl, Merle, Maggie, Tyreese, Andrea and me. We'll go back and… look for her. You guys shouldn't go far, but stay together, stay armed."

"I'll come," Axel said and Michonne nodded in agreement, but Rick shook his head.

"No," he said. "we can't leave the group unprotected. If something happens, you guys need to stick together."

"You're going then?" Carl asked, looking at his father.

Rick glanced over at Daryl.

"Yeah," he finally said, his eyes still on Daryl. "I am."

Daryl didn't say anything. Not one muscle in his face twitched. He wasn't going to thank Rick for this. It shouldn't have even been up for fucking debate.

"Then let's get a fuckin' move on!" Merle bellowed.

Daryl didn't look at any of them. He turned around and followed his brother to the truck, climbing into the back. He wasn't going to waste any time saying goodbye to them.

He could hear Rick speak to Carl, probably ordering him to stay behind.

Daryl had to bite down on his tongue, so he wouldn't start shouting at them. Merle was right, they were wasting time. They had to get going right now, who knew how much time Carol had?

_If she even has any…_

Daryl squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head violently to rid himself of the thought. There was no fucking point in expecting the worst. They could just give up straight away if they considered her already gone.

He could feel the others getting into the truck, the doors slamming shut, before the engine came to life and they drove away.

Daryl looked over at his brother. Merle had his gun firmly in his hands, staring straight ahead, his face not betraying a single emotion.

It was the first time in a long stretch that Daryl was truly grateful to have him there. Merle knew how to act in a situation like this. And he had taught Daryl. And Daryl had taught Carol.

Daryl took a deep breath. All throughout the winter he had made it his mission to make sure that Carol learned how to survive. She'd been a great student, never once complaining, always listening to every command he gave her. He just hoped with all his might that now that the moment had actually arrived, she would be able to remember and act on it.

Daryl leaned his head back against the car, looking up at the dark sky. The situation was a hell of a lot like when he'd been standing in the Woodbury arena, about to be executed in front of a jubilant audience. All he could think about then, too, was Carol. How he would never get to see her again.

But this was worse. Way worse. Because that time, it was him who was in danger. Who was about to die. And now it was Carol.

Daryl clenched his fists as hard as he could, trying to control himself. Pure, white, singing anger had uncoiled in his stomach and was spreading through him. He felt like he would explode any second.

He was a fucking idiot. He should have taken his brother's advice. Merle had been right. Nothing in this fucked up world lasted and there was no fucking time for dancing around each other or hesitating. He'd been a fucking pussy. He hadn't managed to truly let Carol know what she meant to him. Even this night, when Carol had said all those things to him, that had spread like a warmth through him, even then he had frozen up. Always scared that he wasn't wanted, that he wasn't deserving.

And then he had broken the promise he'd made to himself. He'd sworn to himself that he would never let her out of his sight. He would always know where she was, he would always make sure that she was safe. And he had failed.

He had failed Carol.

**I hope you enjoyed it and it wasn't too much internal Daryl. It's just that I enjoy nothing more than writing a broken and fucked up insecure Daryl who desperately needs to be saved. Y'all know EXACTLY what I'm talking about... ;)**


	21. Something Stupid

**My dearest Caryl dudes and (probably mostly) dudettes, you have my sincerest apologies for taking such a long time to give you guys an update. I have had absolutely no time, splitting what little I have between applying for graduate degrees and writing my Bachelor's thesis on Firefly (yeah you read that right. I love TWD but Firefly is the greatest show ever made).**

**This is the penultimate chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it!**

The cold night air was whipping his face as they drove.

Rick was racing and both Daryl and Merle had to deal with some rather painful bumps in the road. But that didn't matter. They had to get back as fast as possible.

Daryl could feel Merle stealing glances at him from time to time but he refused to meet his brother's eye. He didn't want to have a discussion about how fucking stupid it was to go right back in there. He knew that. He knew he was putting everyone at risk by forcing them to go back. And yet he didn't feel guilty about it. He couldn't. It sure wasn't smart, but smart had nothing to do with it when it came to Carol. He'd meant everything he'd said to Rick. Nothing and no one was more important than Carol. He would have happily sacrificed anyone else to get her back. It was the kind of shit you weren't supposed to say out loud, but Daryl didn't give a fuck about hurting anyone's feelings. He could feel bad about all that later, when they'd gotten her back.

They had to get her back.

His stomach churned and he felt like he was about to vomit. Never in this life had he been this scared, not even of his father when he had come home drunk and beat the shit out of him. Not for Merle, when the others had left him chained to the top of that tower. Not even for himself, when he had been certain he was going to die in that arena in Woodbury. Carol eclipsed everything.

"This would be the perfect time for a fuckin' drink," Merle said, sighing. Daryl didn't respond. Merle turned to look at him. "I know you think I don't get this."

"You don't," Daryl said simply.

"Yeah," Merle said quietly. "I guess you're right about that. I ain't ever met a woman I'd risk my life for like this."

There was silence for a while, Daryl already sinking back into his thoughts.

"But," Merle added, looking intently at his brother, "that don't mean I don't get going after the most important person in your life, baby brother."

Daryl stared back at his brother.

"And here's the thing," Merle continued, "I know you ain't thinkin' straight, 'cause there ain't no thinkin' straight in this. So I'm gonna be the one to think straight here. I understand what she means to you and I understand why you're doing this. But you ain't doin' it with a clear mind."

"The fuck are you talkin' about?" Daryl said impatiently.

"I know you," Merle said. "You're gonna throw yourself into this. And if we don't find her-"

"We're _gonna_ find her," Daryl hissed through clenched teeth, but Merle ignored him.

"If we don't find her, you're gonna do somethin' stupid."

"What?" Daryl said.

"You know exactly what I mean," Merle said. "It don't even have to be on purpose, but you're gonna do somethin' stupid. And that can't happen, d'you understand? You cannot do anything stupid."

Daryl didn't respond, his eyes fixing on the darkness.

"And I'm gonna make sure that don't happen," Merle added. "Ain't no way you're goin' anywhere."

Daryl stayed silent and Merle didn't continue. Everything had been said.

Daryl closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the metal.

This wasn't about him. This was about Carol. The only thing that counted was finding her and getting her back. It didn't matter what it would cost. Who it would cost. As long as they got her back safely.

And if they didn't…

Daryl banged his head sharply against the metal. Couldn't even think like that. Wouldn't help anyone, least of all Carol. And she would be fucking pissed if she found out he expected her to be dead. Underestimating her all the fucking time. She'd stand with her hands on her hips, her eyes glaring as she berated him. Make him feel like an idiot.

Daryl couldn't help the small smile that crossed his lips. He'd seen that image so often. Carol liked to tell him off a lot. He had to make sure she'd continue to do so.

The truck came to a sudden halt, making Daryl and Merle slide forward abruptly.

"Fuckin' Rick," Merle growled as he jumped off the truck, Daryl following quickly.

"This is as close as we can go," Rick said as the others got out of the car. "We should continue on foot, see what's going on."

He looked at Daryl who gave a quick nod. Not waiting for anyone else, he raised his crossbow and quietly starting walked down the road. He could feel Merle follow him closely.

It was getting close to dawn, the sky had become lighter. He could make out the road in front of him and the trees on either side. Then slowly, something appeared on top of a hill.

"Almost there," Daryl whispered, glancing behind him for a second.

"You see any walkers?" Merle asked, his voice low.

Daryl squinted, trying to see.

"Ain't a herd," he murmured. "Maybe a couple."

They continued to make their way up the hill, getting closer and closer to the house. The stench of the rotting flesh grew gradually stronger, as they walked past some of the bodies they had slain hours earlier. A few strays were wandering around, turning to face them as they approached.

Daryl grabbed one of his arrows, sinking it into the first one's eye. He wrenched it out again, thick blood spilling onto his hands as the walker fell to the ground. He could feel the others rush past him as he attacked a second walker with his knife, wrestling him to the ground before sinking it into his forehead.

They were lucky. The herd had moved on after they had fled. Only a few were left wandering around and they were quick work.

"Gotta be careful," Rick said, all of them breathing heavily. "Can't turn your back while it's still dark. We should wait until the sun's up."

"No way," Daryl interjected immediately. "We're gonna look now."

"Daryl," Rick said, grabbing him by the arm. "We came with you, didn't we? And I promise you we'll look for her. But I ain't putting any of us further at risk by having them wander around in the dark. Who knows how far that herd even went?"

Daryl wrenched his arm free, shooting Rick a look that was nothing short of disgust.

He turned to walk away.

"Daryl!" Rick yelled as loud as he dared. Daryl stopped and turned around.

"Do whatever the fuck you want," he said tonelessly. "Ain't no way I'm waitin'."

He turned away again, heading towards the house.

"Let's check the yard and round back first," Merle said as he caught up with his brother.

They made their way around the house, Daryl's eyes focused on detecting the slightest movement. Merle bent down and rolled over bodies to inspect their faces. He caught Daryl looking at him.

"Sorry, baby brother," he said, "can't rule it out."

Daryl clenched his teeth and didn't respond. He wasn't going to look at a single body, lying on the ground. All of those were rotting walkers. Carol wasn't one of them.

Daryl walked around the edge of the house, squinting at the bushes growing at the house wall.

"Carol!" he yelled tentatively. There was no answer.

Then suddenly he heard movement inside the house and his heart gave a jolt.

"It's the others," Merle said, coming around the corner. "Lookin' inside."

Daryl couldn't help but feel angry at them for making him think it was her.

"Let's go," Daryl growled.

They continued to scan their surroundings inch by inch, Daryl trying to locate even the tiniest movement, Merle turning over more bodies.

Slowly the made their way back to the front of the house.

"Don't think she'd be here," Daryl said, nodding towards the house.

"Think she tried to make a run for it?" Merle asked.

"Think so," Daryl answered, looking over at the edge of the forest. If Carol had managed to reach the forest it would have been easier to hide.

"Let's go then," Merle said and they started walking towards the edge of the forest.

Suddenly raised voices were coming out of the house. Daryl stopped in his tracks.

"Fuck's goin' on?" Merle asked, turning back.

"Maybe a stray," Daryl said, but his mouth had gone completely dry. He was gripping his crossbow so hard it hurt.

Maggie burst out of the front door into the yard, looking around. Her eyes landed on Daryl and she unconsciously took a step back, her arms crossed in front of her chest, refusing to meet his gaze.

"What is it?" Daryl asked, his own voice ringing in his ears. Maggie didn't answer. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears.

Daryl didn't wait for her to open her mouth. He stormed past her into the house, rushing fron the kitchen into the living room. There was nobody there. Then he heard footsteps from upstairs. He bounded up the stairs and nearly collided with Glenn.

Glenn looked at him, his eyes filled with so much pity, Daryl wanted to hit him. Rick came out of the room at the end of the corridor. Where he and Judith had slept. He looked at Daryl, his eyes betraying no emotion.

All of a sudden Daryl's legs were unbearable heavy. Every step closer to the door where Rick stood took incredible effort. His heart was hammering so loudly in his chest he was sure every walker in a 50 mile radius would hear it. The floor creaked under his heavy boots as he approached the bedroom. A cold swear had broken out across his forehead and his fingers started to shake.

He came to a halt in front of Rick. They looked at each other and Daryl knew that Rick was willing him not to go in. He also knew Rick was aware that there was no way he wasn't going in there. Rick took a step away from the door.

As if in slow motion Daryl reached out and pushed the door open, its hinges squeaking slightly.

It was darker in the room than outside. Daryl's eyes took a moment to adjust. He could make out the large dresser in the corner, where Carol had stored all of Judith's things. He made out a turned over chair lying on top of the scrunched up carpet.

And he could see the bed.

It was messy. One of the pillows had been ripped open. The feathers littering the floor.

And someone was lying on it. Someone small, thin. Someone with short hair.

Someone who was wearing a tank top that had been turned dark with blood.

Someone who was absolutely still. Absolutely dead.

**I'll try to have the last chapter up as quickly as possible, but I can't make any guarantees. All my awesome followers, be so kind and leave a review :)**


	22. Dark and Deep

**I've been a bad fictioneer. I'm really sorry it took me so incredibly long to give you guys the last chapter of the story. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy it. Thanks for the ride! **

_It's her. It's Carol. _

Daryl stood in the dark bedroom, staring down at the lifeless body lying on the bed. He had fooled himself until now. He had thought that maybe after everything he had taught her, Carol would have found a way to survive long enough for him to get back to her.

But she hadn't.

He had failed her. He hadn't been paying attention and now she was dead. He had lost the only person that really mattered.

Every muscle in his body had gone numb and he wasn't even aware that he was moving towards the bed. Slowly he stretched out his hand, putting it on Carol's shoulder. It was cold.

As gently as possible, he rolled her over onto her back.

_I just want to see her face. Just one more time._

He leaned in closer, willing himself to commit everything about her to his memory.

And then it hit him.

The smell of rotten flesh.

His fingers shook so hard he almost couldn't get his flash light out of his pocket. He turned it on with sweaty fingers and pointed it at the bed.

_A walker. It's a fucking walker._

It was a woman. Emaciated, short hair. And with a big gash in the middle of her forehead.

_It's not Carol. It's not Carol. It's not Carol._

Daryl stumbled back, away from the bed, his heart racing.

He staggered out of the bedroom, past Rick, down the stairs.

He almost fell down the front steps as he dashed out of the house. He dropped to his knees and threw up.

If his mind had been in a different place he might have been ashamed for barfing for no real reason, like a girl.

But he didn't give a fuck. There was just one thought running through his head.

_It's not Carol. It's not Carol. It's not Carol._

He took in ragged breaths, trying to calm his body down. He vaguely heard as the others joined him outside.

"The fuck's goin' on?" Merle asked angrily.

"It's not her," Daryl rasped.

"What?" Glenn asked, staring at him.

"It ain't Carol," Daryl said, looking up at them.

"I- Are you sure?" Maggie asked carefully.

"Course I'm fuckin' sure," Daryl growled, glaring at her. "It's a fuckin' walker. A walker with a fuckin' hole in her head."

"Carol must've killed it," Rick said.

"Yeah," Daryl said and had a brief flash of pride. Then he shook his head. He could save that for later. Now it was high fuckin' time to find her.

"The house is empty," Glenn said. "We looked everywhere else. She's not here."

"We should go look in the woods," Daryl said and got to his feet. His legs were still shaking. "If she made it over there she might've been able to hide."

Glenn and Rick exchanged a quick glance, but it didn't escape Daryl.

"What?" he barked.

"Daryl," Rick began warily. "She's not in the house. That means she got out. But we have no idea where she is now. She could be anywhere."

"So we look _everywhere_," Daryl said, angrily. Rick was acting like this was a fucking riddle, when it was in fact the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's the middle of the night," Glenn said.

"So fuckin' what?" Daryl said sharply.

"So we should go back to the others," Rick said. "and continue searching tomorrow. When the sun's up."

Daryl was so dumbstruck by the statement he just stood there and stared at the man. Then a flash of white hot anger shot through him, so powerful that it almost made him dizzy.

"You better be fuckin' with me," he said, his voice dangerously low.

Merle put a hand on Daryl's shoulder. He knew that if Daryl didn't control himself he'd probably beat Rick to death.

"You wanna run on back," Daryl hissed. "have a fuckin' nap and wait 'til mornin'? You wanna leave her out there for eight fuckin' hours, on her own? It takes one fuckin' mistake, one second, to fuck up. And you wanna give her eight hours?"

Rick didn't respond.

"You know what," Daryl said. "I don't give a fuck what y'all do. Ain't no way I'm goin' back without her. I told you."

Without another word he turned on his heel and started walking towards the forest.

"Where are you going?" Maggie called.

Daryl didn't respond, he just kept walking, Merle on his heel.

"Daryl!" Rick called.

Daryl didn't stop or turn around. He just kept walking. When he had reached the edge of the forest, a hand closed around his upper arm. Daryl wrenched free and rounded on Rick.

"Don't you fuckin' touch me!" he growled. Every muscle in his body was tense. He had a huge desire to hit the man standing in front of him. But finding Carol was more important.

"You cannot keep doing this," Rick said, trying to sound calming.

"Doin' what? Tryin' to find one of us?" Daryl barked.

"You can't keep running off on your own. What the hell are we gonna do then, huh? Look for Carol and for you?" Rick asked.

"Frankly, Sherriff," Merle said. "I wouldn't try appealin' to my brother's sense of reason right now. Cause he ain't got one."

Rick shot him a dark look.

"I don't need y'all to come with me," Daryl said. "Merle 'n me can do this on our own. We can find each other."

"We're not gonna leave you here," Maggie said.

"I can't have y'all slowin' me down," Daryl said.

"That's nice," Glenn said dryly.

Rick sighed in frustration.

"Alright," he finally said. "we should split into three groups. Maggie and Glenn, me and Tyreese, Daryl and Merle. We spread out and look. And we meet back here in an hour. Alright?"

He looked around and everyone nodded. Rick's eyes rested on Daryl.

"I mean it, Daryl," Rick said. "We meet back here in an hour. I don't mean we stop searching after an hour," he added as Daryl opened his mouth to protest. "I just mean we touch base. You gotta meet me half way here. You understand?"

"Fine," Daryl said through gritted teeth. Rick had a point.

"Okay, then," Rick said. "How d'you propose we do this?"

"Maggie, Glenn, you go West," Daryl said. "you and Tyreese, go east. Me and Merle will go straight in. I wanna search the water."

"Alright," Rick nodded. "We'll meet back here in an hour."

The others nodded. Daryl didn't wait, he dashed into the forest.

He knew that he was walking too fast. His feet were rustling through the fallen leaves and he was making too much noise. But he couldn't slow himself down. Every second he wasted was a second that could cost Carol her life. Merle caught up with him and they walked in silence, each of them scanning their surroundings.

"Alright," Merle said after a while. "Now that the fuckin' headmaster's gone, we can split up."

Daryl looked over at his brother. If the situation hadn't been so dire he might have grinned. Merle had known from the start that they were going to split up to cover more ground.

"You head on down to the water," Merle said. "I'll go left."

"Alright," Daryl said and nodded. Merle took his brother by the shoulder.

"I don't mind doin' it this way, "he said. "but we're still meetin' the others in an hour. You gotta promise me that, little brother."

"I promise," Daryl said and nodded.

"Good," Merle said. "Go on, then. Let's find that girl of yours."

He grinned once and then vanished.

For the fraction of a second Daryl thought that they were being idiots. Splitting up was a stupid idea. They would be a lot more vulnerable. If one of them got attacked or bit, who knew if they would even find each other again?

But then he shook his head. If anyone was going to survive on his own it was Merle. And if Daryl didn't make it… so fucking what? If he didn't find Carol it wouldn't matter anyway. Not to him.

His eyes peeled, Daryl carefully made his way through the forest. He had his crossbow in his hands, straining to pick up the smallest sound of danger.

The trees swayed in the wind. Daryl heard cracks. Leaves rustling.

He was probably imagining half of it.

A crunching sound came from the tree above him. Daryl's gaze shot upwards, his crossbow raised. He continued to walk, his eyes trained on the branches of the tree.

Suddenly his foot caught on something and he almost fell to the ground. He looked down and made out a dead walker.

He leaned down and carefully inspected its head. There was a gash in his right temple and a foul stench surrounded a gaping wound in its stomach.

_Somebody killed it. Somebody with a weapon. It could've been Carol._

Daryl's pulse quickened as he trained his eyes on the ground around the walker. If he could make out the tracks, he could follow them. And then maybe he would be able to find her.

Daryl thought he saw shuffled foot prints making a path through the trees. But it was too dark to be sure. It could've been an animal. He followed the tracks anyway.

The sound of running water started to grow louder. Raising his crossbow Daryl tensed as he walked towards the stream. The tracks ended right at the water's edge. They couldn't be Carol's after all.

Daryl's heart sank and frustration and panic threatened to overcome him. He took a deep breath and angrily shook his head to rid himself from the horrible images that were starting to appear in front of his eyes.

This didn't mean shit. Maybe Carol had run off in a completely different direction. One of the other groups had probably already found her. He was getting anxious over nothing.

He wasn't paying as much attention as he should have as he followed the stream. If a pack of walkers had broken off from the earlier herd it wouldn't be too hard for them to take him out. He was concentrating on keeping pictures of Carol's torn body lying all alone in the middle of the forest out of his head.

The stream widened out into the pond that Carol had discovered.

The surface of the water was glistening in the moon light as Daryl stared at it.

Carol had jumped in, happy to finally be able to wash. She had told him to come in but he had chickened out like a fucking idiot. He hadn't even stolen a glance at her as she got dressed. He bitterly regretted that now.

Why did he always have to be such a fucking pussy about everything? There was nothing to be scared of with Carol. She knew him better than anyone else, she had no great expectations. She knew who he was and what he was about. He should have just given in.

But, no. He was a fucking idiot who couldn't just accept that a woman like Carol actually cared about him, so he shouted at her and pushed her away, every chance he got.

Daryl sighed, running his hand through his hair. This was fucking pointless. Obsessing about being a pussy wouldn't help him find Carol.

He looked out at the water. He had thought she would be here. That's why he had chosen to go this way. They had come out here together. He thought this would be where she would hide.

_Yeah, right. Like she could have factored sentimental significance into her fuckin' hiding plan._

Daryl turned around, staring at the trees. He knew he would have to head back to the meeting point soon. One hour was far from enough. Rick should have fucking known it, too.

Daryl stalked back into the trees, letting out a slight growl as anger at the man rose up again.

And then suddenly a weight from above hit him with such force that he fell to the ground, letting out a grunt. He tried to close his fingers around his crossbow but it flew out of his reach as his back collided with the ground, knocking all the air out of his lungs.

Gasping for breath he stumbled to his feet, drawing his knife as fast as he could, trying to focus his eyes on the thing in front of him.

He could make out a shape moving towards him, but suddenly it froze.

"Daryl?"

His heart actually skipped a beat. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears.

"Daryl, is that you?"

The shape carefully moved in closer and came to a halt between two trees.

A sliver of moonlight fell onto her.

Her eyes were wide. A cut ran through her right eyebrow. Her clothes were torn and she was covered in blood.

But it was her. She was standing there. Right in front of him.

"Are you okay?" he asked automatically, his eyes glued to the bloody front of her shirt.

Carol looked down at herself.

"It's not mine," she said. "I took a little bath in walker guts. Mask the scent. Like you said."

Daryl didn't know why he wasn't moving. He found that he could just stand there, rooted to the spot and stare at her. He never wanted to stop looking at her standing there, looking slightly worried. Here she was, covered in walker blood after spending hours on her own trying to survive and she was worried for him. Because he was acting like an idiot.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?" Carol asked, looking confused and a little disappointed.

"I left you," he said. "I thought you got into the SUV. I should've made sure."

"There were four walkers," Carol said. "I had to make a run for it. Got back into the house. They came after me. I killed one of them in Rick's room. Had to climb onto the roof and jump down."

She looked at Daryl, expecting some type of reaction but none came.

"Came straight here," she added.

"Why?" Daryl asked.

"To wait for you," Carol said and shrugged, as though it was entirely obvious. "I knew you'd come back looking for me."

The way she said it, with such utter conviction, made Daryl's heart swell. Not for a second had she doubted that he would come back for her. And she had chosen to hide here, where they had been.

She knew him, inside and out. And he knew her.

Without another thought he dropped his knife to the ground and took three steps closer so he was standing right in front of Carol.

"You're allowed to hug me," Carol said, with a small smile.

"Right," Daryl said.

He lifted his shaking hands and with as much care as he could muster he brushed his fingers across Carol's cheek. He had to make sure she was real. That she was actually standing right there, in front of him. Alive. Human.

Daryl couldn't tear his gaze away from her eyes, sparkling in the moon light. He drew his thumb across her bottom lip and his hands came to a rest on either side of her face.

He could see that she was nervous. He had never felt more anxious in his entire life.

Carol leaned forward, but Daryl drew back slightly.

"You're it," he said quietly.

"What?" Carol breathed.

"You know I ain't good with words," Daryl said. "but I want you to know. This… you. You're it for me."

A brilliant smile spread across Carol's face as she looked up at him and it almost took his breath away.

"I know," she said. "You're it for me, too."

Daryl grinned at her and she leaned in again. But again, Daryl drew back.

"What is it?" Carol said and she sounded slightly impatient.

"I threw up," Daryl said.

"What?"

"Back at the house," he said. "I threw up. Probably don't have the best breath right now."

Carol looked up at him as though she wasn't sure how to process the information.

"You know what?" she said after a while, a twinkle in her eye.

"What?" Daryl asked.

"Fuck it," she said and without another word she grasped him around the neck, drew him down and kissed him.

Carol was right. Fuck it. There was no way his breath could fuck this up. Nothing in his life had ever felt as good as Carol's lips on his. Carol's fingers curled into his hair and he let out an involuntary growl. She grinned against his lips before they parted, out of breath.

Daryl rested his forehead against hers, drawing his arms around her waist, pulling her closer.

"You and me," Carol breathed, placing a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth.

He looked at her, marveling at how incredibly lucky he was. The entire world was so fucked up. He had been fucked up before any of it had ever happened. But here he was. In a fucked up world. And it was the best thing that could ever have happened to him. Because here she was, in front of him, promising him everything he could have ever imagined and more.

A smile spread across his face as he looked into her eyes.

"You and me."

**There it is. The bitter end. Well, not really bitter. Hopefully, also not really corny. I tried to contain myself. Thank you all for sticking with this story. I hope you guys are happy with the last chapter. It would be lovely if you leave me a little review on your way out! Thanks so much, guys!**


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